By Michael Hill
Correspondent
Plywood in place of glass. Zero curtains or blinds in the windows. Overgrown grass in the yard. Signs of trouble at a house on Mary Street in Elizabeth. A sign of the growing list of foreclosures in Union County.
“It’s been kind of a ‘see a need fill it’ philosophy. People needed foreclosure counseling so we provide it,” said Brand New Day CEO Penny Meredith.
Meredith is the CEO at Brand New Day in Elizabeth, helping homeowners here and in East Orange and Irvington dodge the foreclosure bullet through counseling and connecting them to lenders.
“We have had success in the most recent two years with programs like NJ Homekeeper which was funded through hardest hit funds. Through that we’ve had quite a few families to bring their mortgage current using those funds,” she said.
Every New Jersey county saw an increase in foreclosure filings from fiscal year 2013 to fiscal year 2014, and in some counties like Cumberland down in South Jersey, the foreclosure filings more than doubled.
The New Jersey judiciary says foreclosure filings rose from 41,400 for fiscal year 2013 to 53,400 for the fiscal year that just ended, that’s a jump of 29 percent.
In Union County, which includes Elizabeth, foreclosure filings went from 2,628 in fiscal year 13 to 3,190 in fiscal year 2014.
The New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency says the state lags behind others in clearing up its foreclosures because of the lifting of the moratorium filings two years ago.
The agency says it has several programs to help homeowners with distressed properties.
New Jersey Community Capital in Trenton has one called ReStart. It bids and buys distressed mortgages from the federal government and then works to see how it can help the homeowner keep the house without foreclosing.
For some, the glass is not half empty, it’s half full. Marina Torres saw an opportunity in 1978 and for $75,000 she bought a foreclosed six family house where she was renting. She fixed it up and 15 years later.
“After I fixed it nice, I’ve had people from New York City that pass by my house, they wanted to give me 700,000 but I won’t sell it,” said Torres.
But at Brand New Day, keeping families in their houses is rewarding.
“It’s a great feeling. I mean there’s not a million dollars made doing this. Anything that you do that’s designed to help people, you’re not going to get rich from it. But there’s a good feeling at the end of the day knowing that you helped somebody,” said Meredith.