With home foreclosures hitting yet another high in August, the Cook County board is joining the list of government agencies trying to help homeowners keep their houses.
The County has organized 14 workshops starting Saturday aimed at helping folks restructure expensive mortgages.
But Commissioner Deborah Sims says embarrassed residents often don’t show up to foreclosure workshops.
SIMS: Nobody wants to come and say that their house is in foreclosure. But I think by having all of (the workshops) at different places, people can go outside of their communities where people don’t know them. They can feel comfortable by coming. Too many people are losing their houses, and it’s all because of predatory lending.
Foreclosures nationwide were up 27 percent in August compared to the same time frame a year ago. The silver lining is that the rate foreclosure rate isn’t going up as fast as it has in recent months.
Still, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan are among the ten states with the highest foreclosure rates, according to the foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac.