Florida Rural Legal Services is offering free legal clinics for homeowners facing foreclosure thanks to a $500,000 grant from the Florida Attorney General’s Office. Clinics are held every Wednesday from 10 a.m. to noon at the Lee County Courthouse.
The money is part of a 2012 settlement with five of the nation’s largest mortgage servicers. A total of $25 billion was given to 49 state attorneys general to help homeowners. It’s the largest joint state-federal settlement in U.S. history.
Florida Rural Legal Services Paralegal Lorraine Barker says anyone who lives in and owns a home facing foreclosure can come to the Lee County Courthouse to discuss their options with the organization’s attorneys.
“We talk to them,” Barker said. “Do you want to keep the home? What’s the value of the home? What’s the worth of it now? What’s your mortgage? Do you want to stay or are you just trying to get out from under this mortgage?”
When Florida Rural Legal Services started in the 1960s, its mission was to offer free legal advice to low-income residents.
Barker said the grant helps reach an entirely new group of clients who are also struggling to make mortgage payments.
“A family for four, for instance, can be earning as much as - and we could just as easily be talking two adults with two children here - their income could be $68 - $70,000,” she said. “Whereas normally for our guidelines, a family of four would be, yearly, just under $29,000.”
The Florida Rural Legal Services’ Fort Myers office is offering its services to residents in Charlotte, Glades, Hendry, De Soto and Lee County. The foreclosure rates in these counties vary greatly. In Charlotte County, housing database RealtyTrac reports one in every 1,088 homes was in foreclosure in May.
In Lee County, one in every 392 homes was in foreclosure.
“Lee County specifically is still one of the hardest hit areas,” Barker said.
Services that fall under the grant are also available in the organization’s other offices across southern Florida.
So far, only 425 homeowners program-wide have sought help through the program.
If the organization does not see 750 homeowners by July 31, it will lose the grant. The clinics will continue, but the eligibility requirements will return to what they were before the grant.
