The Silicon Valley Community Fund, a philanthropy that offers financial support to families, nonprofits and government programs, continues giving back to the community through $525,000 worth of grants to help homeowners prevent foreclosure.
Seven housing counseling and legal services organizations will receive $75,000 each to maintain their teams of counselors and legal advisers during a period of increased demand for their services.
The housing crisis is affecting thousands of homeowners in the San Mateo and Santa Clara counties of California. Nine hundred will receive foreclosure prevention services as a result of the grants, according to the community fund.
Emmett Carson, president and CEO of the community foundation, says that the grants are crucial at this time of economic uncertainty.
"Mortgages are continuing to re-set and homeowners are still being victimized by brokers, lenders and others who are engaging in illegal practices," says Carson. "With unemployment still at record levels, the demand for foreclosure prevention services remains high."
The Silicon Valley Community Fund said that it expects that about 20 to 50 percent of the homeowners who get assistance will receive a loan modification from their lender or find another method to avert foreclosure.
Of the seven nonprofits that received funding from the philanthropy, six have received its assistance in the past to hire more counselors to increase their capacity to serve more clients.
Many of the grant reicipients, like Community Legal Services, plan to host training events at local high schools for homeowners who speak little English.
In an area with a large Latino population, each of the nonprofits that received the grants have Spanish-speaking counselors and legal advisors.
A recent study by the National Council of La Raza, an advocacy group for Latinos, shows that minority families are disproportionately affected by the housing crisis. The report estimated that 1.3 million Latino families will be foreclosed on between 2009 and 2012.
