Foreclosure mediation is proving to be a fruitful field for research. As part of the comprehensive evaluation I’m conducting of six foreclosure mediation programs in Illinois, I interviewed those involved in administering those programs. One of those administrators, who also is one of two mediators for a program in central Illinois, said he was seeing a difference in outcomes for cases based on the loan’s investor. Investor restrictions often dictate the outcomes that are available to homeowners facing foreclosure. Government-sponsored enterprises (GSE’s), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have different restrictions than federal agencies, like FHA and VA. For example, FHA’s loss mitigation policies say that homeowners can’t be offered a loan modification if they had obtained one in the previous two years. The administrator believed those differences in outcomes was caused by the differences in regulations. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘foreclosure’
Does It Matter If Your Home Loan Is Owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac? RSI Is Set to Find Out
Jennifer Shack, March 26th, 2015Foreclosure Mediation Training in Kane County a Success
Just Court ADR, December 8th, 2014
On December 3rd, the Kane County Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program held a training seminar for program mediators and members of the bar. The event was sponsored by Northern Illinois University College of Law and the Illinois Sixteenth Judicial Circuit Court. Judge Downs opened the training by welcoming attendees and providing her perspective on how the foreclosure crisis has affected the community and the court. She then shared the impact the Foreclosure Mediation Program has had since it launched almost a year ago. Housing counselors, legal aid and lender attorneys also spoke, describing their roles in the program and the experience of the clients they serve. Professor Alan Boudreau from NIU College of Law was the final speaker and provided the perspective of the Mediation Program. Professor Boudreau explained how the program’s service providers interact and how the role of the mediator fits into the larger foreclosure picture. All of the presenters remained on-hand for a panel discussion. (more…)
Housing Matters
Just Court ADR, October 10th, 2014Last Thursday and Friday I had the opportunity to attend the Housing Matters conference hosted by Housing Action Illinois, a statewide coalition formed to protect and expand the availability of quality, affordable housing throughout the state. Their annual conference is designed to bring together housing counseling agencies, homeless service providers, developers of affordable housing and policymakers. The conference was filled with valuable information and was a great opportunity for RSI to connect with the housing counselors, legal aid providers and research experts that help make our foreclosure mediation programs successful.
A few of the workshops that I attended really stood out as applicable to the foreclosure mediation work that RSI is doing. (more…)
Introducing RSI’s Foreclosure Mediation Research Intern
Just Court ADR, August 29th, 2014
Please join me in welcoming MJ Scheer to the RSI team. MJ is a second-year law student at Loyola University Chicago School of Law who is pursuing a career in appellate civil litigation, mediation, and arbitration. She will be with us for the fall semester, updating RSI’s national foreclosure mediation resources.
MJ has a passion for mediation and a history of studying foreclosure mediation and court-connected mediation programs. Her undergraduate thesis at Northwestern University was a comparison of foreclosure mediation programs in Oregon and Maine and an analysis of the symbolic nature of the state laws and statutes that gave them life. After graduation, MJ received a Master’s in Conflict Resolution from Georgetown University, where she focused her studies and expertise on the intersection of ADR and the law. Additionally, MJ has been certified by the state of Virginia to practice mediation in small claims court in General District Court in the state of Virginia through Northern Virginia Mediation Service (NVMS). At Loyola, MJ is a member of Volume 46 of the Loyola University Chicago Law Journal as a staff member, as well as Loyola’s 2014-2015 Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition.
Here at RSI, MJ will research the changes and updates to foreclosure mediation programs throughout the country. If you have seen RSI’s Foreclosure Dispute Resolution Program Models State-by-State or Foreclosure Mediation Program Funding documents, we are excited to report that updates are around the corner! Also, if you work in the field of foreclosure mediation, we’d love to hear from you, so we can ensure that we are reporting the most relevant and up-to-date information about the work that you are doing. MJ can be reached at intern[at]aboutrsi[dot]org.
