The Pima County Housing Center wants homeowners who may have been wrongly harmed by foreclosure in 2009 or 2010 to know that they may be receiving compensation.

Homeowners who requested a free Independent Foreclosure Review by Dec. 31, 2012, in connection with the U.S. government’s enforcement actions against 13 mortgage servicers are among the more than 4.2 million people nationwide who will receive payment.

The $3.6 billion in cash payments come as a result of an agreement between federal banking regulators and the 13 mortgage servicers, including Bank of America; Countrywide; Chase; Citibank; Morgan Stanley; Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.; U.S. Bank; Wachovia Mortgage; and Washington Mutual.

According to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, payments are expected to range from a few hundred dollars to $125,000. Those receiving payment may still pursue their own legal claims against their servicer.

In most cases, a letter and check from the paying agent – Rust Consulting Inc. – will arrive in four to eight weeks. Some borrowers may receive a letter from Rust requesting additional tax-related information that will be needed to process their payment.

To verify that you are covered by the agreement or to update contact information, call Rust Consulting at 1-888-952-9105. Information provided to Rust will only be used for purposes relating to the agreement.

If you need additional help with foreclosure prevention, please contact the Pima County Housing Center at (520) 624-2947; or the Homeowner’s HOPE Hotline at 888-995-HOPE (4673) or at www.makinghomeaffordable.gov.

The review process for more than 450,000 borrowers serviced by OneWest, Everbank, and GMAC Mortgage continues because these companies did not enter into the agreement with federal banking regulators. Regulators expect the review process for these companies to be completed over the course of the coming year. Eligible borrowers at these servicers who requested a review will receive information about their review when it is available.

For more information, please visit:

• https://independentforeclosurereview.com/Settled.aspx.
• The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (www.occ.gov/independentforeclosurereview).
• The Federal Reserve (http://www.federalreserve.gov/consumerinfo/independent-foreclosure-review.htm).
• The Pima County Housing Center, 801 W. Congress, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays or call (520) 624-2947.

You may be entitled to compensation if you were wrongly harmed by foreclosure, but you must take action this month.

The Pima County Housing Center is working with Don’t Borrow Trouble® Pima County and HUD-approved housing counseling agencies to help identify borrowers who were financially harmed as a result of servicer errors, misrepresentations, or other deficiencies during the foreclosure process.

The Federal Reserve Board and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued enforcement actions against 14 large mortgage services for deficient servicing and foreclosure practices. A foreclosure review conducted by an independent consultant is required as a result of the enforcement actions.

If your primary residence was involved in a foreclosure process between January 1, 2009, and December 31, 2010, you may qualify for a FREE Independent Foreclosure Review.

The Independent Foreclosure Review will determine whether individual homeowners suffered financial injury and may receive compensation or other remedy due to errors or other problems they encountered while going through the home foreclosure process with their lender.

Remediation for losses (financial loss due to foreclosure) may include:

• Loan modification or other loss-mitigation assistance.
• Correction of credit report or correction of deficiency amount records.
• Lump sum payment of $500-$125,000 plus equity.
• Suspension or rescission of foreclosure.

Requests for review must be postmarked or submitted online by Dec. 31, 2012.

If you or someone you know may qualify, please contact:

• the Independent Foreclosure Review Hotline at 1-888-952-9105 from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Tucson time) Monday through Friday and from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
• the Federal Reserve Board at  www.federalreserve.gov/consumerinfo/independent-foreclosure-review.htm.
• the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency at www.occ.gov/topics/consumer-protection/foreclosure-prevention/correcting-foreclosure-practices.html.
• the Pima County Housing Center, 801 W. Congress, at (520) 624-2947 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
• Don’t Borrow Trouble at (520) 792-3087.

Celebrate Housing America Community Day on Saturday, Oct. 20, and talk to local housing experts who can help you find a home to buy or rent, qualify for a mortgage or financial assistance, or improve or hold onto the home you have.

The free event is 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Pima County Housing Center, 801 W. Congress.

Over 20 exhibitors are participating in the housing fair.

Bring your whole family. Meet McGruff the Crime Dog and Tucson Water’s Pete the Beak.  Kids can get free bike repairs and ID kits; a big fire truck will be on site.

Enjoy free refreshments and entertainment (music by Mariachi’s Las Aguilitas from Davis Bilingual Magnet School and Inspiracion de Tucson).  Spin the wheel and enter the raffle to win big prizes.

The workshop schedule is:

• 10-10:45 a.m. – Credit Repair
• 10-10:45 a.m. – Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP 2.0)
• 11-11:45 a.m. – Home Ownership Programs
• 11-11:45 a.m. – Save Our Home AZ – AZ Department of Housing
• Noon-12:45 p.m. – Affordable Rental Programs
• Noon-12:45 p.m. – Independent Foreclosure Review (Were you denied a loan modification?)
• 1-1:45 p.m. – Credit Repair
• 1-1:45 p.m. – Home Preservation/Foreclosure Prevention/ Refinance Program Q&A Panel

Home repair/weatherization demonstration workshops will be ongoing during the event.

Please see the attached flyers in English and Spanish.

The Pima County Housing Center and its partners:

• Provide resources, information, counseling, classes, computers, and workshops to help first-time homebuyers and other Pima County residents purchase, repair and make their homes more energy efficient; find affordable rentals; improve their credit; and save and manage their money.
• Help homeowners with mortgage modification and foreclosure prevention or recovery.
• Assist individuals and families who have been victims of fraud and rescue scams.
• Help individuals obtain emergency rent, mortgage and utility assistance.

For more information, call the Housing Center at 624-2947 or stop by between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Keep up with Pima County and the Housing Center on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pimacountyarizona.

Come celebrate sustainable landscaping – and sustainable housing – at the Pima County Housing Center (El Banco) at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, June 7, as the last tree of its landscaping project is planted.

Pima County opened the Housing Center at 801 W. Congress St. a year ago to help residents rent, buy, improve and hold onto their homes.

The landscaping project is another step in the process of making “El Banco,” the former bank building, more energy- and water-efficient.  “One of the Housing Center’s missions is to educate Pima County residents about how they can conserve resources and reduce expenses at their homes,” said Housing Program Manager Betty Villegas.

Landscape designer Jessie Byrd of Desert Green Design, who worked with Pima County on the Historic Courthouse’s landscape renovation last year and is the lead designer for the County’s Prickly Park at 3500 W. River Road, designed the landscaping.

“Her expertise in landscape and conservation design, and arid-land vegetation, is helping to integrate native plants in urban institutional landscape and parks, a key component and extension of the award-winning Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan,” said Rafael Payan, Director of the Pima County Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation Department, which also worked on the project.

The Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society, which is partnering with the County on Prickly Park, gave the Housing Center an education grant to purchase 23 rescued barrel cactus for the project. Other native plants incorporated into the project include ironwood, palo verde and mesquite trees, yellow bells from the Pima County Native Plant Nursery, and many species of cactus and succulents, including saguaros, ocotillos, agaves, prickly pears, organ pipes and sotols.

“We hope to use these examples to entice the community to use native Sonoran desert plants that are both beautiful and regionally adapted to our desert climate for commercial, industrial and residential landscape projects,” Ms. Byrd said.

A crew from Desert Survivors, a nonprofit human services agency that provides employment for adults with disabilities at its plant nursery at 1020 W. Starr Pass, and a Pima County Jail inmate crew also worked on the project.

“The Pima County Sheriff’s Department was happy to provide help to this worthwhile project in the form of an inmate work crew,” said Lt. Joshua Arnold. “El Banco is one of many locations throughout Pima County where inmate work crews have been utilized for beautification purposes. The Sheriff’s Department is proud to be a part of this project and will continue to extend a helping hand in efforts to improve our community.”

The Pima County Housing Center and its partners:

• Provide resources, information, counseling, classes, computers, and workshops to help first-time homebuyers and other Pima County residents purchase, repair and make their homes more energy efficient; find affordable rentals; improve their credit; and save and manage their money.
• Help homeowners with mortgage modification and foreclosure prevention or recovery.
• Assist individuals and families who have been victims of fraud and rescue scams.
• Help individuals obtain emergency rent, mortgage and utility assistance.

Call the Housing Center at 624-2947 or stop by between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The Pima County Housing Center is warning homeowners who are hoping to get help from last month’s $25 billion National Mortgage Settlement that numerous scams claiming to be connected to the settlement are already being reported.

To avoid becoming a victim of a foreclosure scam, consider these tips from Money Management International, a nonprofit credit-counseling agency.

• There is no fee involved in the National Mortgage Settlement. If you are contacted in any way by someone asking for money in return for a speedy settlement payment, they are scamming you.
• Don’t panic. Mortgage scams are effective because the scammer is able to exploit the fear of a person who is in a desperate, vulnerable state. Don’t let fear cause you to make irrational decisions.
• Never act under pressure. Don’t sign a contract or disclose information before doing your research. You can always request to receive any information in writing.
• Trust your gut. If someone is offering you something that sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
• Stay informed. Make sure you obtain detailed information about your foreclosure deadlines. If you want to know if you qualify under the Settlement, contact your bank or loan servicer directly.
• Don’t release any personal financial information. If you are contacted by someone who claims to be from your financial institution and wants you to “confirm” or help them identify your personal account information, it is likely a scam. Rather than releasing information, ask for their contact information and tell them you’re going to call them back.

Call Don’t Borrow Trouble at 792-3087 or the Housing Center at 624-2947.  You can also stop by the housing center at 801 W. Congress between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The Pima County Housing Center and its partners:

• Provide resources, information, counseling, classes, computers, and workshops to help first-time homebuyers and other Pima County residents purchase, repair and make their homes more energy efficient; find affordable rentals; improve their credit; and save and manage their money.
• Help homeowners with mortgage modification and foreclosure prevention or recovery.
• Assist individuals and families who have been victims of fraud and rescue scams.
• Help individuals obtain emergency rent, mortgage and utility assistance.

A free workshop focusing on the needs, interests and issues of homeowner and neighborhood associations in Pima County is only one week away.

Pima County and the Arizona Association of Community Managers (AACM) present “Living Together as Neighbors,” a Homeowners Association Workshop on Saturday, Nov. 5.

The workshop begins with registration at 8 a.m. and runs until 12:30 p.m. at the Ellie Towne Flowing Wells Community Center, 1660 W. Ruthrauff Road, Tucson (east of La Cholla Boulevard).  Reservations are requested because of limited seating.

To reserve a seat for your HOA Board or members, email HOASeminar@pima.gov or call 520-243-2939 and leave your name, HOA, number of attendees and your phone number.

This workshop is designed for active members of Pima County homeowner associations.  Participant HOAs need not be under management by AACM Certified Arizona Association Managers (CAAM®).  It is open to self-managed HOAs as well as neighborhood associations.

The workshop will include:

• A Legislative and Legal Update, including a Q&A, by AACM member attorneys
• “Trim Your Energy Wasteline,” a presentation designed for HOAs by Tucson Electric Power
• “Sustainability for the Desert Dweller,” a presentation by Pima County’s Sustainability and Conservation Office
• “Civility and Civic Engagement: A conversation about where we are headed,” with Kristin Almquist, Community Outreach Director of the National Institute for Civil Discourse at the University of Arizona, and Elva Coor, a member of the Board of Directors of The O’Connor House.  Other state and regional civility efforts will be highlighted.
• A panel of AACM CAAM® management professionals will discuss ways in which neighbors and HOA members can work well together in an HOA and neighborhood environment to build better communities.

The Arizona Landscape Contractors Association will have an information booth along with the following Pima County departments and organizations addressing specific subjects: Sheriff’s Auxiliary Volunteers’ Neighborhood Watch; Community and Economic Development’s Neighborhood Sustainability Program; Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation – Buffelgrass; Department of Environmental Quality; Wastewater Management – sewer information; and Regional Flood Control District – flood insurance.

For more information, contact Duane Krause with the Arizona Association of Community Managers at duane@aacmonline.org or at 520-334-2004.

Pima County, Arizona – Celebrate Housing America Community Day on Saturday, Oct. 22, and meet housing professionals who can help you find a home to buy or rent, qualify for financial assistance, and improve or hold onto your home.

Come to the open house from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Housing Center, 801 W. Congress.

Workshops will include how to:

• Reduce your energy “wasteline”
• Update and “green” your historic home
• Budget and repair your credit
• Avoid scams, fraud and foreclosure.

More than 20 exhibitors will have information and guidance on affordable rental and homeowner opportunities, health care, legal aid and energy conservation.

Meet McGruff the Crime Dog and Tucson Water’s Pete the Beak.  Kids can get fingerprinted for free.  Get a look at the GROUPE Car Club lowrider bike and custom bike show.

Help members of the Menlo Park Neighborhood Association install water-harvesting earthworks and plant trees next door at Casa Linda, 17 N. Linda Ave.

The Pima County Housing Center and its partners:

• Provide resources, information, counseling, classes, computers, and workshops to help first-time homebuyers and other Pima County residents purchase, repair and make their homes more energy efficient; find affordable rentals; improve their credit; and save and manage their money.
• Help homeowners with mortgage modification and foreclosure prevention or recovery.
• Assist individuals and families who have been victims of fraud and rescue scams.
• Help individuals obtain emergency rent, mortgage and utility assistance.

Call the Housing Center at 624-2947 or stop by between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The Pima County Community Land Trust stabilizes neighborhoods by using federal grant funds to buy and rehab foreclosed homes and sell them to low-income individuals and families with good credit.  Because the trust continues to own the land the homes are on, the homes are more affordable and the homebuyers are able to build equity not available to them as renters.

You can read more about the land trust in the Arizona Daily Star.

The land trust is a nonprofit organization.  Pima County obtained and administers one of the federal grants that funds the land trust’s work through the Pima Neighborhood Investment Partnership (www.pnip.org).   Betty Villegas, manager of the Pima County Housing Center, is on the land trust’s board of directors.

For more information about the land trust, contact Maggie Amado-Tellez at www.pimacountycommunitylandtrust.org.

For information about other housing programs and assistance in Pima County, contact:

Betty Villegas, Pima County Housing Center, 801 W. Congress, at 624-2947 or Betty.Villegas@pima.gov.

Gary Bachman, Pima Neighborhood Investment Partnership, at 295-2925 x1 or Gary.Bachman@pima.gov.

Pima County Housing Center at 801 W. Congress St.

The new Pima County Housing Center at 801 W. Congress and its partners:

• Help homeowners with mortgage modification and foreclosure prevention or recovery.
• Assist individuals and families who have been victims of fraud and rescue scams.
• Help individuals obtain emergency rent, mortgage and utility assistance.
• Provide access to resources, information, counseling, classes, computers, and workshops to help Pima County residents purchase, repair and make their homes more energy efficient; find affordable rentals; improve their credit; and save and manage their money.

Read an interview with Betty Villegas, the manager of the Housing Center in the Tucson Weekly.

For more information about housing assistance in Pima County, call the Housing Center at 624-2947 or stop by between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.