Today,  the Oregon Housing and Community Services department begins hosting a series of public forums across the state designed to determine how best to provide assistance to Oregon homeowners facing foreclosure.
Recently, the Obama administration announced that Oregon will receive $88 million in funds earmarked for the creation of a program designed to help struggling homeowners stay in their homes (Oregon was included in the second round of states that will receive money from the U.S. Treasury Dept.’s   “Hardest Hit Fund”).
The fund helps states  with high concentrations of people living in areas where there was an unemployment rate higher than 12 percent in 2009 (in Central Oregon, that includes Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson counties).
After stops in Medford and Eugene, the forum will be held  in Bend on Thursday (May 13), from 6-8 p.m., at the Bend Community Center Community Hall (1036 NE Fifth). The final stop will be in Portland on May 19.
After Oregon Housing and Community Services receives input from participants at the forums, they will submit a proposal to the U.S. Treasury (the deadline for that is June 1). The program should begin to be implemented in late summer or early fall.
Here’s more info about the forum.