In 2002, nearly 9,500 foreclosures were initiated in the City of Chicago, a 91 percent increase since 1993. Many of these foreclosures were concentrated in the City’s low- and moderate-income neighborhoods on the South and West sides, where foreclosure rates were nearly seven times the national average. Increasing numbers of vacant buildings plagued the City’s most vulnerable neighborhoods, with multiple boarded-up homes appearing on once stable blocks.
With these stark statistics as a backdrop, the City of Chicago and Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago launched an aggressive campaign to combat foreclosures. Mayor Richard M. Daley and Charles L. Evans, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, convened a leadership group to form the Home Ownership Preservation Initiative (HOPI). A partnership of the City of Chicago, NHS of Chicago and key lending, investment, and servicing institutions, HOPI seeks to preserve sustainable home ownership for Chicago residents and to reclaim foreclosed housing stock as neighborhood assets.
Through HOPI, NHS is not only working locally on solutions to the foreclosure crisis, but also nationally to inform and induce broader change in the mortgage industry. HOPI has been a national model promoted through the NeighborWorks Network and the National Center for Foreclosure Solutions. HOPI is a practical laboratory in which on-the-ground experiences with homeowners are transmitted to lenders, regulators, and government entities to effect changes in loss mitigation and lending practices that sustain homeownership.
HOPI is dedicated to preserving homeownership through foreclosure prevention, loss mitigation and individual intervention. The HOPI partners work to develop innovations and promote best practices in lending, servicing and default counseling in order to prevent or mitigate the social and financial cost of foreclosure.
Since its inception, the HOPI partnership has:
- Saved over 3,924 Chicagoans from foreclosure.
- Counseled or Educated over 20,420 homeowners at risk of foreclosure.
- Reclaimed 842 vacant or at-risk properties.
