My wife and I had the best intentions when we bought a house at foreclosure in 2008. We gutted it and did a total remodel. Our goal was to do a refinance, bringing the mortgage and other debts down to something more affordable for us. But, then the recession hit, and we were not able to refinance anything. At the end 2009, I left my position at a local church. Fortunately, I received a severance package including salary, housing, and benefits for the entire year of 2010. My wife was working part time for a local school district, managing the lunch room at an elementary school. But I had a hard time finding another job in 2010 and 2011. We knew we were getting to the point where we would not be able to pay the mortgage. So, I called our bank several times. One of the big ones! But, they would not help us because we were not yet in arrears. Here we were trying to be proactive, and no one wanted to talk to us!

Then we found our way to a housing counselor who was able to help us get a loan modification. This took two plus years, every minute of which we were on the financial edge, just barely making it. It was a living hell! But we never gave up! And it looked like we were going to be okay. I had just begun a job working with teens and kids on the Kitsap Peninsula. I loved the job. But the commute was eating us alive. Aside from the time it took - it was fifty miles one way; the gas costs and

Hannah was already a senior citizen when she bought her house at the height of the subprime mortgage scams in 2005. Unbeknownst to Hannah and her family, the mortgage broker had falsified her income to make her qualify for the loan and rake in profit from the fees. She could barely afford the mortgage but had managed to keep up with the payments until 2011, when she lost her job as a care giver. At the same time, the value of her house had plummeted, making it impossible for her to refinance into a more affordable mortgage.

Winnie tried to help her mother Hannah take advantage of the federal HAMP program which requires mortgage servicers to work with homeowners, in or on the verge of delinquency, to modify their mortgages so they can keep their homes. But Hannah’s mortgage holder (one of the largest banks in America that had recently bought her mortgage) was not playing by the rules. The bank dragged out the process for years, requesting and then claiming to lose financial documents five or six times. Now in her late 70’s, Hannah’s health was deteriorating from the constant worry that she would lose her home. Then mother and daughter came to the Northwest Consumer Law Center.

Donna, a single mother of three children, worked full-time as a receptionist as well as part-time on the weekends as a cashier just to make ends for her family. Years earlier, some legal troubles had forced Donna apart from her children and made her unable to pay her car note, so her vehicle was repossessed. She resolved the legal problems, reunited with her children, and even went on to get an Associate’s Degree – but then got a nasty shock when the car lender, to whom she didn't know she still owed any money, got a court order to garnish her wages. The garnishment threatened to undo all the years of hard work and tear Donna’s family apart again. Donna had no way to pay a private attorney the typical $1500.00 or higher fee for filing bankruptcy. Fortunately, she found out about NWCLC. Through a no-fee bankruptcy, NWCLC was able to stop the garnishment and keep Donna and her family on track toward financial security.