Long Island/In the Region - Help for Struggling Borrowers LENDING A HAND Mortgage specialists meet with homeowners at a foreclosure prevention event in Uniondale sponsored by Bank of America. LAST fall Kathleen and Donald Hogan of Plainview, who had fallen three months behind on their mortgage payments, sent the Bank of America a check for $2,020. It was all they could muster of the $3,256 they owed their mortgage servicer that month on the three-bedroom two-and-a-half-bath split-level they have owned since 2001. The bank returned the check, refusing a partial payment. Unable to sort out their problem and restart a loan modification process by phone, the Hogans recently attended a foreclosure help event sponsored by Bank of America at a Marriott in Uniondale. They hoped to roll the $9,700 in arrears into a new loan, or be given 18 months rather than 90 days to pay it back. The Hogans were among the 4,955 delinquent customers within a 100-mile radius invited to the outreach event with housing counselors and specialists that the Bank of America held July 12 to 14 at the Marriott. According to a Bank of America spokeswoman, 291 customers met with loan-modification specialists, underwriters and other experts on site. "It's a thorough analysis of your financial situation," said Jessica M. Garcia, a vice president for national mortgage outreach. "The economic downturn has impacted people in different ways," among them divorce, job loss, underemployment or illness. The spokeswoman said that out of the 30 percent who arrived with full documentation, only about 10 were approved for a loan modification. Customers who did not receive a decision on site have the option of meeting later with a specialist; 50 attendees scheduled appointments. The Bank of America event was one of several on the Island in the wake of a $25 billion federal-state settlement reached in February with the nation's five largest loan servicers for foreclosing without verifying documents. The settlement provides relief for: homeowners needing loan modification now; borrowers who are current but underwater, or owe more than their property is worth; and victims of wrongful foreclosure conduct. JPMorgan Chase, which since last fall has been meeting with struggling borrowers at a "homeownership center" in Hauppauge, held a loan-modification event this month at a Hempstead branch. Last Tuesday and Wednesday, Wells Fargo assembled a team of more than 100 mortgage specialists and invited 40,000 customers from the area, including 6,300 within a 25-mile radius, to a "Home Preservation Workshop" at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Ally Financial held a similar event in Melville. Distressed CitiMortgage clients can attend a July 31 event at the Islandia Marriott. At the Bank of America event, qualifying customers had to be 60 days or more behind on their mortgages. A modification to make payments more manageable could include extending terms, reducing the rate, or suspending payments for 90 days. Reducing the mortgage amount is not the focus, said Ms. Garcia, who has been running such events in different parts of the country for four years. Let's right-size the payment based on what the customer can manage. "Our goal is foreclosure prevention," she added. The bank also operates a customer-assistance center in West Hempstead six days a week. In June, according to RealtyTrac, a foreclosure listing firm, there were 391 new notifications of pending foreclosure in Nassau County and 178 in Suffolk County, down from June a year earlier, when there were 428 in Nassau and 292 in Suffolk. Foreclosures are affecting one in 1,162 homes in Nassau and one in 2,317 in Suffolk. Marie Day, a regional servicing director for Wells Fargo home mortgage division, which services 17 percent of Island mortgages, says that 7 percent of its customers are currently unable to pay their mortgages on time. "We will do all we can to get them to an affordable number," she said. "We do not want to be in the real estate business" - rather to help "as many of our customers as possible to stay in their home." Before seeing specialists at the Bank of America event, borrowers discussed budgets with housing counselors from the nonprofit agencies Community Development Corporation of Long Island or the Long Island Housing Partnership, both certified by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Topics included "crisis budgets" for the immediate hurdles, as well as budgets maintainable in the long term. "It's a reality check, an awareness," said Joan LaFemina, the program manager for homeowners services for the Community Development Corporation. The budgeting form required itemization of gym memberships, cosmetics purchases, expenses like dry cleaning and manicures - in short, minor expenses that add up and "prevent people from long-term success." The counselors functioned as a nonjudgmental "support team" to help prioritize budget essentials and prepare for the bank process. "Everyone thinks a modification will save them," Ms. LaFemina said. We can't promise that everyone can keep their home. It's about being honest and realistic. The events, she continued, "offer them - for good or bad - answers, resolutions." Carol Yopp, the foreclosure prevention program manager for the Long Island Housing Partnership, said many of the homeowners who attended had previously received a modification and were "now out of work and facing another crisis." Contributing factors have included exorbitant local property taxes and a high cost of living, she added. Homeowners who are unemployed shouldn't expect a loan modification, she said, but they can request that the bank "defer a portion of their payment while on unemployment without penalty." As for the Hogans, paying the mortgage became problematic in 2008 when Mr. Hogan lost his job. Then Ms. Hogan was disabled. Two years ago, when one of their children suddenly needed surgery, their medical expenses soared; that was when they first received a loan modification. Meanwhile, counting the arrears, the delinquency charges and other bank fees, their initial $300,000 mortgage swelled to $426,385, Ms. Hogan said. "Basically the last 10 years of paying the mortgage were lost," she added, expressing hopes that they could "hold on to what we have" and not lose the house. After several hours at the event, the bank deferred a decision on the Hogans" plight for 7 to 10 days.