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May 2007
6
Rules Eased for Those Needing Help with House Payments
By Scott Jenkins
Salisbury Post
Lou Adkins wants recently laid-off Freightliner employees and other Rowan County residents who have lost their jobs to a shifting economy to know they
don't have to lose their homes.
Adkins is community development coordinator with the Salisbury Community Development Corp., the local agency administering the state's Home Protection
Pilot Program and Loan Fund.
Started in 2005, the program was initially a response to large-scale layoffs and plant closings around the state, particularly the 2003 closing of
Pillowtex, which put 4,300 out of work in Rowan and Cabarrus counties.
The fund provides interest-free loans to make mortgage payments -- up to 18 months or $20,000 -- for people who have lost their jobs to layoffs or
business closings due to "changing economic conditions."
But a change in the requirements since 2005 means that even people who haven't been laid off can qualify if they've seen their hours reduced
substantially, as many Freightliner employees have, Adkins said.
"Everybody in the entire plant qualifies, even those working short time," Adkins said. "Even though they're working, they're not going to be making
nearly what they did make and it's going to be hard for them to keep up."
Another change in the program means that anyone who worked in Rowan County can apply here, even if they live in another county. And another change
will make it easier for borrowers to repay the loans. Initially, they had to start making payments the month after leaving the program, but now they have
up to 15 years to repay, Adkins said.
With demand for its trucks waning, Freightliner recently laid off nearly 1,200 workers at its Cleveland manufacturing plant and told remaining
employees they would work every other week.
So far, Adkins said, only a few Freightliner employees have applied for the program, but she hopes more will before fall several months behind in
their mortgage payments, facing damaged credit and late fees.
"It's so much better if I can catch them before they get way behind," she said. "If we can catch them early, we can avoid all that."
Even for those who are behind in their payments, the program can help. The state prohibits lenders from foreclosing on a home of a borrower or
applicant in the loan program. The state stepped in and stopped one proceeding when a home was about to be sold at the courthouse, Adkins said.
And the program can be a big help for people looking to escape the uncertainty of manufacturing jobs. In fact, for Eddie Ballard, it "was a godsend."
Ballard, a China Grove resident, worked at Pillowtex for 23 years before the company closed its doors in 2003. He had used his retirement fund to pay
the mortgage and other bills and got to the point where "things seemed pretty bleak" until he was sitting in the Employment Security Commission office
one day and saw an application for the Home Protection loan program.
The fund paid Ballard's mortgage for 18 months while he took classes in heating and air conditioning work at Rowan Cabarrus Community College. He's
now working on an associates degree at Central Piedmont Community College, where he maintains a 4.0 average, and isn't worried about finding a full-time
job when he completes it.
Without the state loan program, he said, "I wold have lost my place." Now, "I'm actually financially better off now than I was before the mill shut
down."
The loan program and the local agency administering it "took a lot of stress off me and helped me to achieve a lot of my goals that I set for myself
since the mill shut down," Ballard said. "It saved me. It turned things around for me."
So far, the program has helped around 25 Rowan County borrowers keep their homes, Adkins said.
And Adkins said she can also help people who don't need the long-term loans. After the Pillowtex shutdown, the Community Development Corp. received
money from the United Way, Foundation for the Carolinas, First Reformed Church in Landis and others to set up a fund that helps people who only need one
or two house payments.
In addition to mandatory counseling for people who get the long-term state loans, the agency also provides counseling for people who simply need help
budgeting the money they have, including unemployment benefits, Adkins said.
For more information about the state and local mortgage programs, call Adkins at the Salisbury Community Development Corp. at 704-638-2154.
Contact Scott Jenkins at 704-797-4248 or sjenkins@salisburypost.com.
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