Marketing and Outreach Committee
The purpose of the Baltimore Homeownership Preservation Coalition's Marketing and Outreach Committee is to develop consumer education and outreach material and tools relating to foreclosure prevention as well as to support nonprofit and government outreach campaigns.
BHPC's Marketing and Outreach Committee is chaired by Laurie Latuda of the Goldseker Foundation. If you are interested in joining the Marketing and Outreach Committee, whose members include nonprofit housing counselors, foundation representatives, and city and state representatives, please contact Committee Chair Monica Copeland at monica@baltimorecashcampaign.org or Meredith Mishaga at mmishaga@bncbaltimore.org.
Mortgage Matters
The array of information provided to homeowners worried about falling behind on their mortgages can be overwhelming and confusing. BHPC is grateful to Baltimore City for a grant to provide Mortgage Matters presentations, an overview of mortgages and foreclosures for at-risk homeowners and other city residents. Knowledgeable BHPC representatives make a presentation, answer participants' questions, and point them toward additional resources. This session is viewed as a pre-cursor rather than a substitute for individualized housing counseling sessions.
Mortgage Matters was initially offered as a stand alone session at Baltimore City public libraries. As the foreclosure crisis has unfolded BHPC has adapted the length of the curriculum so it can reach more people by fitting on the agenda of already scheduled community and association meetings. In the first quarter of 2009, BHPC representatives have made presentations at Baltimore CASH's Money Power Day, New Shiloh Baptist Church and Edmonson Village. If you are interested in scheduling a Mortgage Matters presentation at a community meeting, please contact Meredith Mishaga (mmishaga@bncbaltimore.org).
View our short presentation about mortgages, foreclosure prevention, and avoiding scams.
"Mortgage Late? Don't Wait!"
The Mortgage Matters consumer outreach campaign builds on BHPC's previous successful outreach efforts. The primary purpose of BHPC's 2006- 2007 marketing campaign was to prompt borrowers to contact housing counselors while they are still current on their mortgages or when they first start falling behind. BHPC developed marketing materials to raise awareness among borrowers. Late in 2007 BHPC launched the "Mortgage Late? Don't Wait!" campaign encouraging struggling borrowers to seek nonprofit foreclosure intervention counseling by calling 1-888-995-HOPE. BHPC aired commercials on radio stations, purchased 10 billboard ads, and had posters placed inside 165 buses serving neighborhoods that the data indicated were at high risk of foreclosure. BHPC partnered with NeighborWorks America and the Ad Council in developing campaign materials. Based on the success of the Baltimore campaign, the State of Maryland adopted the same strategy. A 2008 NeighborWorks America report found that 43% of the Maryland borrowers seeking counseling were current at intake, 15 percentage points higher than the national figure.
PDF of "Mortgage Late, Don't Wait" Brochures