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In the unfolding economic crisis, helping borrowers with troubled mortgages has become a growth business, landing Charlotte a dose of good economic news today for its beleaguered financial sector.
At an office park in east Charlotte, Gov. Bev Perdue and other government officials gathered to announce an expansion by a non-profit organization that aims to add 1,014 jobs here over the next five years. Boston-based Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America, a nonprofit community advocacy and homeownership organization, plans to hire customer service specialists, mortgage counselors, negotiators and others to help low-income and minority borrowers.
NACA, as the organization is known, said it plans to hire about 500 of those workers in the next two to four weeks. It will hold a job fair Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. both days at its location at 5855 Executive Center Drive. Job seekers can also find information at www.naca.com.
NACA plans to invest $4.5 million in Charlotte as part of an expansion over the next five years, although NACA chief executive Bruce Marks said the total is really much higher when you tally the total salaries that will be paid in coming years. The jobs will have an average annual salary of $35,982 but some will pay as high as $80,000, Marks said.
The nonprofit is receiving a $1 million grant from the One North Carolina Fund, which provides financial assistance though local governments to stimulate economic activity and create new jobs. The companies receive no money upfront and must meet job creation requirements, the governor's office said.
NACA has two main thrusts: helping borrowers get affordable home loans and, increasingly, helping people who can't afford loans they received from other lenders. The group is holding “Save the Dream” events around the country in which counselors aim to provide same-day loan modifications in which they reduce interest rates to as low as 2 percent and in some cases trim the principal owed.
The next event is July 10-14 in Atlanta. Some of the new hires at the Charlotte office will be part of the team that travels from city to city running these gatherings, which can draw 25,000 or more homeowners, Marks said. In three earlier stops, NACA has helped 30,000 homeowners, and Marks said he expects to aid hundreds of thousands more in the coming tour. As part of the expansion in Charlotte, Marks has agreed to hold an event in North Carolina at a yet to be determined time.
NACA has reached agreements with major mortgage servicers allowing them to make these modifications, Marks said. “We are doing a mobile servicing operation,” he said. “We're doing their job for them.”
Marks said he hopes his organization will set an example for how to modify loans and eventually not be needed for the task. But in the foreclosure crisis he expects to still have plenty of work helping homebuyers with home-purchase loans that feature no down payments and below market interest rates. Those loans have carried low foreclosure rates, now around .68 percent, because borrowers are counseled about the loans and helped if they get into trouble.
Since the 1990s, Marks has cultivated a reputation as a “bank terrorist” known for holding protests against banks – and bank CEOs – that the group deems to have poor lending records in minority and poor communities. The fear of his wrath has led many lenders to collaborate with him rather than fight him.
Retired Bank of America chief executive Hugh McColl Jr. was the major banker to team up with Marks after a famously rocky meeting in 1995. Marks told McColl that all bankers were evil. McColl retorted that nonprofits just want a handout. But the two came to an agreement, and Bank of America continues to be a major partner with the organization, agreeing in 2004 to commit $6 billion to NACA's lending program.
McColl was on hand for the announcement today, and Perdue praised the retired banker for his role in landing NACA's expansion in Charlotte. In an interview, McColl said he was on the “periphery” of the deal, while praising Marks' plans for Charlotte.
“The jobs are important but what the jobs do are equally important,” McColl said. “They help people own homes in the United States.”
McColl declined to comment on recent events at Bank of America, including CEO Ken Lewis' Capitol Hill appearance today, saying he has been retired from the bank since 2001.
