By Jon Hurdle
Reuters

Pennsylvania’s U.S. senators said on Friday a program that has helped many homeowners in the Philadelphia area to avoid foreclosure could be a model for rescuing thousands of strapped borrowers nationwide.

Sens. Arlen Specter and Robert Casey held a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Philadelphia to hear how the city was able to prevent foreclosure of about 80 percent of homes referred to the program in its first three months.
Read more »

Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) will host a hearing, “Keeping Families In Their Homes: How to Prevent Foreclosures – Part II” in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Friday, October 24 at 10 am. The Committee will hear from several witnesses about the housing mediation program that has been successful in reducing foreclosures in Philadelphia.
Read more »

By Jon Hurdle
Reuters

With the U.S. financial system in crisis due to surging mortgage defaults, a Philadelphia program designed to reduce foreclosure sales may provide a national model to keep people in their homes.

The program, based not on bailouts but reconciliation between borrowers and lenders, has been able to prevent at least temporarily the disposal of many of the properties in its purview.

The first such city-sponsored plan in the United States, it has also saved banks money because it is cheaper to renegotiate than foreclose.
Read more »

On August 26, the Census Bureau released new data on poverty and health insurance coverage for 2007. The statistics show that, despite economic growth over the past few years, the number of Americans living in poverty was greater in 2007 than in the recession year of 2001.
Read more »

Speaking before activists and community leaders at North
Philadelphia’s Thankful Baptist Church, Senator John Edwards launched
the Half in Ten campaign by calling on Congress, the presidential
candidates, and all Americans to make the fight against poverty a
priority.
Read more »