For many homeowners, getting help can be frustrating

Colorado Springs homeowner and artist T. Benton Brooks isn't in foreclosure — yet. He's missed two mortgage payments, but is determined to avoid losing the west-side rancher he's owned for 18 years and where he and his wife raised a son and daughter.

At a time when record numbers of people have fallen into foreclosure in the Colorado Springs area, Brooks believes he's exactly the type of troubled homeowner that lawmakers, housing advocacy groups and consumer counseling agencies want to help. So, he's called his lender to see if he can work out a deal, contacted financial counseling services and pursued assistance through a new federal program.

But after nearly six weeks of phone calls and faxes, Brooks has more questions than answers. Despite efforts by some people trying to help him, he's been unable to navigate the alphabet soup of agencies and programs and still doesn't know if he'll qualify for financial help.

If Brooks' situation proves anything, it's that the same programs that have helped thousands of foreclosure victims can prove frustrating, too, say some of the people who have been working to help him. The system, they concede, is not perfect.

"I know I'm a culprit," said Brooks, who added that his financial troubles are of his own making. "But I'm also a victim."

Foreclosure filings in Colorado Springs and El Paso County will total about 4,500 by year's end, marking the second consecutive annual record, according to the El Paso County Public Trustee's Office.

Nationally, 2.2 million properties were in some stage of foreclosure in 2007, and another 2.6 million are in foreclosure so far this year, said online foreclosure service RealtyTrac. Economists predict millions of additional defaults in the next few years; untold numbers of other homeowners, such as Brooks, are scuffling to make payments.

Brooks, a California native who moved to the Springs in 1978, has been an artist for 40 years. He paints, sculpts and makes jewelry at his Manitou Springs gallery. In true starving-artist fashion, he's made ends meet by working locally as a waiter, mailman, food and beverage director and, for the past decade, a car salesman.

He says he's shopped for years at thrift stores, and major purchases were limited to home improvements such as a front porch, new windows and a sun room. He bought a 2005 car to help his wife care for her elderly parents.

Still, Brooks admits he's made poor choices. As a car salesman years ago, he took out cash advances on credit cards during lean months — effectively borrowing money at hefty interest rates. Multiple refinancings to fund home improvements early on, and to pay off credit cards in later years, left him owing $260,000 on a home he estimates is worth $180,000. He filed for bankruptcy in 2007.

Afterward, he was allowed to stay in his house as long as he made his combined $2,115 a month in first and second mortgage payments.

In past years as a cars salesman, he never sold fewer than 12 cars a month; now, he's struggling to sell seven or eight. He missed $1,425 payments in August and September on his first mortgage, and a $690 payment on his second mortgage in November.

Rather than wait until he got further behind, Brooks called California-based Countrywide Mortgage in September to talk about his missed payments on his first mortgage. But taking the initiative wasn't a cure-all, he said:

• · The first Countrywide customer service representative told him his loan could be re-worked, boosting his monthly payment for six months to $1,972 from $1,425. He said he told the representative he couldn't afford the extra amount.
• · He called a couple of housing counseling agencies - one of which told him he'd have to wait until December for an appointment with a counselor. Another time, a counselor advised him to go back to his mortgage company for help.
• · In mid-October, he called the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Southern Colorado. District Manager Mary Lou Wild arranged for an immediate appointment and called Countrywide on Brooks' behalf. But he said a Countrywide representative told him the company wouldn't consider assistance programs for Colorado homeowners until December.
• · A friend advised him to call the Denver office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Brooks said he researched the federal Hope for Homeowners program, which debuted Oct. 1 and was designed to refinance financially troubled homeowners into new government-backed mortgages.
• · A HUD official advised Brooks how the program works, but didn't know if he'd qualify. Brooks was told to go back to Countrywide to learn if the company would consider him for the program.
• · One Countrywide representative told Brooks in October he wouldn't qualify for Hope for Homeowners because he had a fixed-rate mortgage. But an official at a Springs Countrywide office told him in November that his loan was interest-only - not a fixed-rate. A few days later, another company official told Brooks it was a fixed-rate loan and told him to fax several documents to be considered for Hope for Homeowners.

"It's like I'm totally confused as to what the hell is going on," Brooks said. Just as frustrating, he said, were news stories in which federal officials complained that few people were taking advantage of Hope for Homeowners.

Wild, of the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Southern Colorado, said frequent rule changes in various programs has caused confusion for some lenders and counselors. Catherine Carter, branch manager of the Consumer Credit Counseling Service's northern Colorado Springs office, said counselors are learning on the fly as they work with clients.

"It can be confusing for us, too," Carter said. "Our job is to find the appropriate program or resource."

Likewise, when dealing with borrowers in trouble, lenders must decide if they're willing to take a financial hit by reducing an interest rate or principal balance in order to give the borrower some relief, Carter said.

Not all lenders will do so; Hope for Homeowners required participating lenders to absorb big losses on delinquent loans, which many lenders opposed, according to national news stories explaining why the program wasn't working.

David Berenbaum, executive vice president of the Washington, D.C.-based National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a homeowners advocacy group, said the sheer number of foreclosures has overwhelmed lenders. And despite the workload, many lenders have slashed staffs, which means a backlog of at least two to three months before consumers learn if their loans can be modified, he said.

Ironically, many lenders don't consider borrowers as troubled or start foreclosure proceedings until homeowners have missed three mortgage payments, experts said.

"People like this fellow (Brooks) are trying to think ahead and be pro-active before they reach the panic zone, but they're at a disadvantage because they're trying to access the same resources as other people ... who already are in foreclosure and who have a more urgent situation," said Ryan McMaken, a Colorado Division of Housing spokesman.

Even so, Wild added, homeowners shouldn't wait for three missed payments or until they get a foreclosure notice; they should seek help immediately as they get into financial trouble.

Persistence might be paying off for Brooks.

The HUD official in Denver contacted a Countrywide representative who's a liaison between the company and the federal agency. The liaison contacted Brooks on Thursday to say she would look into his situation, as well as the conflicting information he received from company officials.

That call couldn't have come soon enough, Brooks said.

"I'm leery of getting three months behind," he said. "I'm trying to keep up with this stuff, but I need help."

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0228 or rich.laden@gazette.com