Updated 4/2/09

1996: Mayor Menino creates the Boston Home Center, designed to offer one-stop financial and educational services to Bostonians seeking to buy their first homes and become successful homeowners.

1999: Mayor Menino launches the Don’t Borrow Trouble campaign in an effort to warn the public about the hidden dangers of many new loan products that were being pushed on consumers.  The City of Boston, with support from Freddie Mac, created television public service announcements, billboards, and bus shelter and transit ads to advise consumers to think twice before accepting a too-good-to-be-true mortgage offer. Would-be homebuyers were not only advised of the risks of these new loan products, they were also offered affordable and sustainable alternatives through the Boston Home Center. (For those homebuyers that participated in these financing programs, their foreclosure rate today is now less than one-third the rate that currently exists in the open market – 1.29% versus 3.95%.) 

2004: Mayor Menino forms a new partnership with Freddie Mac and creates the Boston Home Center’s Credit Smart program, allowing residents the opportunity to take advantage of expanded financial educational services beyond the homebuying process.

2006: In an effort to combat the upcoming foreclosure boom, Mayor Menino convenes major Boston banks and creates the First Choice Lenders program. Participating Boston banks agree to 1) adhere to model loan origination and foreclosure prevention business practices, 2) help refinance people out of bad loans and 3) provide financial backing to the Foreclosure Prevention Fund to support foreclosure prevention counseling and financial assistance.

The City of Boston expands its in-house foreclosure intervention counseling capacity and establishes its foreclosure call center (617.635.HOME) to help homeowners in foreclosure trouble. In late 2006, the City selects four community-based agencies  to provide expanded foreclosure intervention counseling and provide training from experts in the field, including  the National Consumer Law Center and NeighborWorks America.

2007: The City expands its Foreclosure Prevention Counseling Network to include Esac, Urban Edge, Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation, and the Mattapan Family Service Center, significantly enhancing the City’s capability to help homeowners avert foreclosure.  In addition to increased capacity to route callers to the most appropriate service, the City also establishes a network client-tracking and information system, enabling the Boston Home Center to keep track of all of its referrals as they progress through the foreclosure intervention process.

Mayor Menino, with the support of Boston’s Legislative Delegation, files State legislation to 1) require truthful labeling in all mortgage offers and advertising, 2) require licensing of mortgage originators, and 3) establish a statewide foreclosure prevention counseling network and a 60-day foreclosure freeze for homeowners signed up with one of the agencies in the network. By the end of 2007, all three elements are enacted, either through regulation or through the anti-foreclosure law signed by Governor Patrick in October 2007. 

Expanded educational services are put in place including Meet The Lenders workshops to help homeowners and homebuyers connect with First Choice Lenders .

At the year’s close, almost 200 homeowners have averted foreclosure with assistance from the Boston Home Center and the Foreclosure Prevention Counseling Network, preserving more than $64 million in home values throughout Boston –an estimated 30% fewer foreclosures than would have taken place without the assistance of the Boston Home Center. Also by this time, over $3 million in refinance loans have been issued by First Choice Lenders to help homeowners find alternatives to their unsustainable loans.

2008: In early 2008, the City of Boston expands the Foreclosure Prevention Counseling Network by adding ACORN Housing Corporation and enters into a new partnership with the Real Estate Bar Association to provide free legal assistance to moderate and middle-income homeowners. The City’s Rental Housing Resource Center begins outreach to tenants in properties that are in foreclosure in an effort to help them keep their apartments.



As Boston’s expertise in foreclosure intervention expands, Mayor Menino further enhances the Foreclosure Prevention Initiative by asking top national loan servicers to responsibly maintain the properties they own in Boston and also consider alternatives to evicting tenants who may live in them.   He also hosts many of these same servicers at a Homeowner Foreclosure Prevention Workshop in March, at which homeowners facing foreclosure are able to meet face-to-face with servicers to determine if a more affordable loan is possible. More than 135 Boston homeowners attend.

The Boston Home Center creates two new educational seminars; “Can You Really Afford That Mortgage?” and “What Homeowners Need To Know About Foreclosures Before It’s Too Late,” designed specifically for those homeowners who have mortgages from lenders known to specialize in risky loans and for those who may be behind in payments. The City also initiates a doorknocker campaign in communities with high foreclosure rates, targeting tenants as well as owners and providing educational materials to local community centers.

In April of 2008, the Boston Home Center is awarded $224,000 from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to support the further expansion of its Foreclosure Prevention Counseling Network.  Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation and Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation join the Network and now provide expanded foreclosure prevention counseling services in some of the areas of the city with the highest concentrations of foreclosures. 

Despite the City’s early efforts, Boston’s foreclosure numbers are continuing to rise. By mid-2008, there are 794 bank-owned foreclosed properties (“REOs”) in the City, representing almost 1,500 units of housing. In recognition of the devastating impact that many of these neglected properties are having on the neighborhoods in which they are located, Mayor Menino convenes his Foreclosure Intervention Team (FIT), a multi-agency coordinated approach to targeting City resources in areas disproportionately affected by foreclosures. The City identifies three such neighborhoods, starting with Dorchester’s Hendry Street, followed by Dacia and Quincy and Langdon Streets in Roxbury. Increased resources are provided, including heightened police presence; physical street improvements; increased code enforcement; graffiti removal, and direct outreach to nearby homeowners.

By mid-2008, the City secures the acquisition rights for five derelict bank-owned properties in the Hendry Street FIT area. Four of these properties are purchased by the City and are subsequently awarded to local developer, Bilt-Rite Construction, for redevelopment. In a separate transaction, the City also facilitates the acquisition of the fifth building by Bilt-Rite directly from the lender, for which rehab work begins right away.

Subsequently, the FIT begins working with local community-based organizations in Roxbury to identify appropriate properties for acquisition and redevelopment in the Dacia-Quincy Street area and the Langdon-Clarence Street area.

Later that summer, Mayor Menino signs an ordinance that requires loan servicers to register each of their properties with the City’s Inspectional Services Department in an effort to hold owners accountable for the management of foreclosed homes. (To date, over 1,700 properties have been registered.) 

In the last quarter of 2008, the federal government enacts legislation to help cities and states address the problems associated with derelict properties created by the national foreclosure crisis. Regulations are issued in the fall of 2008, and the Department of Neighborhood Development (DND) begins planning the City’s strategic use of these new “Neighborhood Stabilization Program” (NSP) funds to assist ongoing foreclosure relief efforts.

In total, Boston is approved to receive  $8.2 million - $4.2 million directly from the federal government and another $4 million from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’s allocation of the federal funds. By late 2008, DND and its non-profit partners have identified ‘target areas’ in which to use the NSP funds for acquisition and redevelopment of foreclosed properties.

2009:  In late January, HUD approves the City’s application for NSP funds, which includes plans for providing funding to homebuyers, non-profits, and private developers in order to acquire and renovate REO properties for reoccupancy by income-eligible homebuyers and renters. Funding for the City’s continued direct acquisition of foreclosed homes is also approved.   The first of these NSP-funded initiatives is launched at a Homebuyer Fair sponsored by the Boston Home Center in February, 2009. At this Fair, attended by over 500 people, would-be homebuyers of foreclosed homes view property listings, talk with mortgage lenders, and meet with housing counselors. Attendees also learn about new financial assistance of up to $25,000 that is now available to help them purchase a foreclosed property in the specified NSP and FIT target areas.

Subsequently, Mayor Menino announces that DND has allocated more than $4 million of the NSP allotment for non-profit and for-profit developers to support the redevelopment of foreclosed properties, returning them to productive use as affordable rental housing or for resale to income eligible homebuyers. Meanwhile, the City continues to negotiate directly with servicers to acquire additional properties in an effort to more quickly return the homes to productive use. 

For more information: Contact the Boston Home Center at 617.635.HOME (4663) or e-mail HomeCenter.DND@cityofboston.gov.


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