9.14.2000 ET

(CSRwire) More than a dozen local agencies, and community organizations joined the City of Atlanta, Fulton and DeKalb Counties and Freddie Mac to launch a metro-wide "Don't Borrow Trouble" campaign to help more local families learn about and protect themselves from predatory lenders. The organizations joined Atlanta, Fulton, and Dekalb County leaders at a press conference here today to call on the local housing industry to also get involved with Freddie Mac's national "Don't Borrow Trouble" campaign.

Local officials also announced that they have raised an estimated $100,000 in funds from Freddie Mac, the City of Atlanta, Dekalb and Fulton Counties to launch the 'Don't Borrow Trouble' campaign. Additional support will be sought from the local housing industry and other sources, officials said.

The agencies and non-profit organizations joining the "Don't Borrow Trouble" campaign include the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance, United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta, Metro Fair Housing Services, the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, the Atlanta Center for Homeownership, the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Atlanta Consumer Credit Counseling Service, Inc., the Dekalb Fulton Housing Counseling Center, the Atlanta/Fulton/DeKalb Housing Partnership, the Green Forest Community Development Corporation, and the D&E Group, Inc.

Over 7,000 Foreclosures Last Year
"Homes are being foreclosed at an alarming rate and the metro Atlanta area has one of the country's highest rates of foreclosure," says Liane Levetan, DeKalb County's Chief Executive Officer. "That's why it is so important that we continue to build on the growing support that the 'Don't Borrow Trouble' campaign has already received. 'Don't Borrow Trouble' is designed to help our citizens protect one of their most prized possessions, their home."

Levetan says that in the last year, there have been more than 7,348 foreclosures in the City of Atlanta and Fulton and Dekalb Counties, many as a result of predatory lending practices.

"Predatory lending is a cross-jurisdictional epidemic that demands a carefully coordinated regional approach," said Commissioner Emma Darnell, Vice Chair of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. "By pulling so many different governments, agencies, and community organizations together, Freddie Mac's 'Don't Borrow Trouble' campaign has already established a position from which we can combine our resources to stop predatory lenders from inflicting any more damage on our families and neighborhoods."

"Homeownership means more than just shelter," added Mayor Bill Campbell, City of Atlanta. " It means a more secure family life and more stable communities. It encourages economic and civic responsibility, promotes savings and investment, and is the primary means of improving the financial base of most Americans. For these reasons, and so many more, the unethical and discriminatory practice of predatory lending cannot and will not be tolerated."

The "Don't Borrow Trouble" campaign employs a mix of ads, websites, and public service announcements in English and Spanish to educate borrowers about predatory lending practices and encourage them to call a toll free telephone number for referrals to local government and non-profit agencies to help them understand and resolve specific lending problems. Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and the Massachusetts Community Banking Council created the "Don't Borrow Trouble" campaign earlier this year.

"Don't Borrow Trouble" A Regional Effort
"We are deeply impressed by how quickly the leaders and community groups in Atlanta, DeKalb and Fulton have built real momentum for the 'Don't Borrow Trouble' campaign," said Dwight P. Robinson, Freddie Mac's senior vice president of corporate relations. "As more community and business leaders come forward, we will be able to give Atlanta's families the information and the resources they need to avoid the few lenders out there who prey on their home equity."

"Over the past decade, especially the last five years, predatory lenders have increasingly targeted low-income, elderly and minority homeowners with the specific goal of acquiring these homes through foreclosure," says Foster Corbin, executive director of Metro Fair Housing Services, "The 'Don't Borrow Trouble' campaign is a crucial first step in providing some protection against future loss of homes, and in most instances, the only equity these people have."

"We are acutely aware of the critical issue of predatory lending in the metropolitan Atlanta community. By providing the 24-hour hotline capabilities of United Way 211 as our investment in this important partnership, we hope to expedite the provision of assistance to those in need," says Jim Beaty Jr., United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta's Director of Community Economic Development.

"The DeKalb Fulton Housing Counseling Center is extremely pleased to be an active participant with the metro Atlanta collaborative 'Don't Borrow Trouble'," said Jimmy Bennett, the executive director of the Center. "This is unquestionably a gigantic initiative for educating metro-housing consumers on the unscrupulous practices of predatory lenders."

"The Don't Borrow Trouble Initiative provides a much needed Public-Private-Non-profit collaborative approach to dismantling aggressive and unethical lending mechanisms in our community," adds Ralph White, President Green Forest CDC.

"Consumer Credit Counseling Service looks forward to working with such a strong coalition of government and non-profit organizations to help Atlanta consumers solve the devastating financial problems caused by predatory lending practices," said Janet Jordan of the Atlanta Consumer Credit Counseling Services.

"We are proud to be a part of such a comprehensive initiative where communities are going to be educated and empowered through this endeavor." said Carrie T. Harris, the President and CEO of the D&E Group. "We are excited about an initiative that will elevate the understanding of homeowners not only at the neighborhood level but metro wide."

"While increasing community awareness is certainly a necessary response to the significant increase in foreclosures resulting from predatory mortgage lending," said Steve Gotlieb of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society "an even more important need is for better consumer protection statutes and more enforcement of those already in existence to eliminate such abuses as unnecessary refinancings (loan flipping), home improvement scams, mortgage broker kickbacks, balloon payments and prepayment penalties."

In addition to Atlanta-Dekalb-Fulton, Freddie Mac is also in the process of launching "Don't Borrow Trouble" campaigns in Chicago, Baltimore, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Oakland, Raleigh-Durham (and Eastern North Carolina), Washington, DC, Cleveland, Buffalo, Syracuse, and Las Vegas.

Making the "Don't Borrow Trouble" campaign available to cities across the country is the latest in a series of actions by Freddie Mac to help protect borrowers from predatory-lending practices. These steps include a ban on the purchase of mortgages with single-premium credit insurance policies and requiring subprime lenders to accurately and fully report borrower credit files to credit repositories so borrowers can benefit from improvements in their payment history, as well as the introduction of innovative loan products for borrowers with credit issues.

Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned corporation chartered by Congress in 1970 to create a continuous flow of funds to mortgage lenders in support of homeownership and rental housing. Over the years, Freddie Mac has opened the doors for one in six homebuyers and two million renters across America.

For more information please contact: