Butler County Treasurer Nancy Nix, Launches local effort to help Homeowners facing forclosure

from the Journal-News

HAMILTON — Faced with higher foreclosure rates, Butler County officials want to put in place educational and other programs to help people who face losing their homes.

County Treasurer Nancy Nix today will outline for commissioners a plan that includes providing workshops for borrowers to help them rebuild their credit, implementing the Save Our Homes program and increasing cooperation between county agencies.

"It's really just arming people with information," Nix said.
Nix plans to add a part-time person on a temporary basis to help organize and launch the programs. She has selected Ann Mort, retired executive director of the Middletown Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"We really just need some help getting it off the ground," Nix said.

She also will update commissioners on plans to implement the Save Our Homes program — an effort first started by state Treasurer Richard Cordray — that has spread to more than 30 of Ohio's 88 counties.

Butler County will launch Save Our Homes in November, Nix said. A benefit of the program, she said, is that the state treasurer's office provides staff support and help with materials.

In Butler County, 556 mortgage foreclosures are under way, Nix said. Of those, 144 are for properties in Middletown, 124 in Hamilton and 53 in West Chester Twp., she said.
Foreclosures in Butler County have climbed 88 percent to 2,580 last year from 1,370 in 2001, according to a study by Policy Matters Ohio.

On a percentage basis, foreclosure growth in the county trailed other large Ohio counties, such as Summit, Hamilton, Cuyahoga, according to the group's study, Foreclosure Growth in Ohio 2007.

The nonpartisan research organization said that because of double filings and other reasons, the data don't give a full tally of foreclosures nor the number of people who actually lose their homes.