Lawyers volunteer to help save homes

TAMPA - Florida ranked second only to California last month with nearly 19,000 foreclosures. Now, our state's mortgage meltdown has prompted the chief financial officer to bring lenders and lawyers together to help people keep their homes.

CFO Alex Sink organized a roundtable discussion at Stetson Law School's Tampa campus. A thousand Florida lawyers are volunteering their services through a program called "Florida Attorneys Saving Homes."

Of course, the key to negotiating more affordable mortgage terms is find the right person to talk to in a lending institution.

"We're going to be able to name an ombudsman or a point person for these volunteer attorneys to work with for each lender," said Sink during a news conference following the roundtable.

Sink also predicts we'll start to see a greater willingness on the part of lenders to work with struggling homeowners who have may have lost their job or suffered a cut in pay.

"You can do that by extending the term of the loan. You can do that by postponing principal payments. You can obviously do that by lowering the interest rate or even taking the interest rate as close to zero as you can," explained Henry Reyes of JP Morgan Chase.

CFO Sink says all parties involved should act with a sense of urgency.

"Time is wasting," she continued. "We are still, in Florida, one of the top four states in terms of foreclosure activities and we need to turn on the jet fuel."

To learn more about how you can help or get help, visit the program's website: http://www.myfloridacfo.com/FloridaHousingHelp/Legal.htm