5. HRSR 08-05-2013 - Laserfiche WebLink

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prevention counseling. Home owners can contact CAPSH directly or visit their website. In addition, every Tuesday a CAPSH counselor is on site at City Hall for individual drop-in appointments.The City has advertised the foreclosure prevention services in a variety of ways including utility bill inserts,the Park Pages,the Sun Post,displays at City Hall,and on the city webpage. Renter Counseling In 2007 Hennepin County approved $70,000 to organizations to assist renters living in foreclosed properties. These funds were distributed to HOME Line, Legal Aid, and Centro Legal to provide renter counseling. Brooklyn Park staff refer renters living in foreclosed homes to these organizations for assistance and counseling. Credit counseling and first time home buyer classes EDA staff actively promote and market financial and credit counseling resources and first time homebuyer classes as another way to inform about foreclosure prevention. Referrals are made to Lutheran Social Services Financial Counseling Service,a HUD-certified counseling agency. In addition,referrals are made to CAPSH for first time home buyer classes. B. Communication EDA staff are marketing information and material about foreclosure prevention through a variety of outlets:utility bill inserts,Park Pages, Sun Post,Star Tribune,ethnic media outlets, city website,Brooklyn Park Now!and displays at City Hall.The City is also considering using an informational"teaser"about foreclosure prevention on envelopes. Multicultural Outreach Staff are also intentionally reaching out multicultural communities,immigrants,new Americans, and other diverse groups. These groups comprise a significant share of Brooklyn Park residents and these residents have been disproportionately affected by foreclosures. In many of these communities information is spread largely by word of mouth and through community leaders; therefore it is critical information gets out to leaders and organized groups in these communities. Staff are facilitating for CAPSH to speak to a variety of diverse groups and events about foreclosure prevention resource. C. Comprehensive Outreach Campaign The City is realizing that despite the large number of foreclosures and the City's existing outreach,home owners are either unaware or reluctant to seek out foreclosure prevention resources. Therefore in an effort to direct more home owners to these resources, Brooklyn Park is partnering with the Minnesota Home Ownership Center (HOC) to create and implement strategies for a comprehensive foreclosure prevention outreach campaign.In 2007,the Home Ownership Center received a Minnesota Housing grant of $500,000 and has identified Brooklyn Park as one of the communities to pilot their foreclosure prevention outreach campaign and funds. 3 February 2008