NFHA Partners with HOPE LoanPort™ to Promote Fair Housing

Organizations Join Forces to Offer Fair Housing Training

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- HOPE LoanPort™ and the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) announced today that they will collaborate to promote fair housing for borrowers facing foreclosure.  The organizations will collaborate to preserve homeownership, particularly in under-served communities, through training and outreach focused on ending discrimination.  NFHA will offer fair housing training to HOPE LoanPort™'s network of nearly 500 HUD-certified counseling agencies and 15 mortgage servicers that are already committed to using the portal.

"This partnership is a natural fit as both of our organizations are dedicated to helping homeowners keep their homes and helping our neighborhoods stay strong and viable," said Shanna L. Smith, NFHA President and CEO. "Fair housing organizations and housing counselors are often the first responders assisting troubled borrowers and can help provide much needed information regarding fair housing issues to borrowers as they navigate the loan modification process.  The partnership will affirmatively further fair housing and particularly benefit borrowers and communities of color that have been disproportionately impacted by the foreclosure crisis."    

"HOPE LoanPort™ is committed to the National Fair Housing Alliance in its effort to promote fair housing," said Larry Gilmore, President and CEO of HOPE LoanPort™.  "We acknowledge the desperate need for fair housing education and outreach as it relates to housing and lending markets. The housing counseling professionals and loan servicers in our network will clearly benefit from the outreach, training and educational opportunities that a partnership with NFHA can offer. This, in turn, will benefit the homeowners nationwide that are seeking assistance with their mortgages."

HOPE LoanPort™ addresses one of the biggest hurdles to loan modification:  lost documents.  Because all modification documents are uploaded into the portal, both the servicer and the housing counselor can readily ascertain whether an application has been submitted and whether all required documents have been entered into the system for the servicer to access and review.  Housing counselors also receive status reports every ten (10) business days of the status of the application for a loan modification.  These improvements allow servicers using HOPE LoanPort™ to reach faster decisions on loan modification applications.

HOPE LoanPort™, powered by RxOffice® and developed by the HOPE NOW Alliance, is a new web-based tool that streamlines loan modification applications on behalf of homeowners at-risk of foreclosure, allowing housing counselors to efficiently transmit completed applications to mortgage servicers. HOPE LoanPort™ is designed to improve the quality of both the application itself and the ability of servicers to make decisions on that application.  HOPE LoanPort™ is a web-based utility created to improve the execution of loan modifications. The portal is currently being used by homeowners, non-profit counselors, servicers, and other organizations involved in the loan modification process. Currently, 15 major mortgage servicers and more than 1,800 housing counselors from 480 organizations in 47 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico work with HOPE LoanPort™ to assist struggling homeowners.   www.hopeloanportal.org.

Founded in 1988, the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) is a consortium of more than 220 private, non-profit fair housing organizations, state and local civil rights agencies, and individuals from throughout the United States.  Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the National Fair Housing Alliance, through comprehensive education, advocacy and enforcement programs, provides equal access to apartments, houses, mortgage loans and insurance policies for all residents of the nation.  www.nationalfairhousing.org.

SOURCE National Fair Housing Alliance