National Association of Social Workers

Helping Clients Facing Foreclosure Threat

Feelings of Helplessness and Despair Are Common

"I always try to help people realize that they are not alone; it is not necessarily the client's fault."

By Paul R. Pace, News Staff

Illustration: John Michael Yanson

The alarmingly high number of foreclosures across the U.S. has lawmakers and financial experts scrambling to find solutions. Besides the financial woes a foreclosure can cause an individual or a family, social workers are taking note of the emotional implications when a person or family faces such a traumatic situation.

Feelings of helplessness and despair are common among this group who, for whatever reason, find themselves unable to make their mortgage payments, say social workers.

Melissa Greenlee is a social worker who now works as an attorney for a nonprofit agency in Dayton, Ohio, called the Predatory Lending Solutions Project at the Miami Valley Fair Housing Center.

"Nearly all the clients who contact us are at immediate risk of losing their homes to foreclosure as well as being victims of predatory mortgage lending," Greenlee said.

"People who are facing foreclosure are in a crisis," she said. "They are embarrassed, humiliated, and most of them are at the lowest point in their lives." The attorney said social workers are ideally suited to offer these people help, particularly in utilizing their crisis-intervention skills.

That sentiment was shared by Carol Cornell, a retired social worker from Washington state who has counseled people all over the country during her career. "The loss of a home will bring up other losses that have ever occurred in an individual's life and severely damage one's self-esteem," she said. "A social worker needs to start working with the client with that in mind."

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From May 2008 NASW News. © 2008 National Association of Social Workers. All Rights Reserved. NASW News articles may be copied for personal use, but proper notice of copyright and credit to the NASW News must appear on all copies made. This permission does not apply to reproduction for advertising, promotion, resale, or other commercial purposes.