How were 108 6/2/08 - FINANCE - BILL 080500 the families identified? Through the housing agencies or through housing support programs, like HADV and others? MS. McCOLLOCH: In the Mini-PHIL program? It was through housing counseling agencies. Housing counseling agencies made referrals.
I see. To OHCD? MS. McCOLLOCH: Well, not to OHCD. GPUAC, Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition, was managing it, and so referrals were made to GPUAC, who did a review, and then they were in turn referred to banks to get assistance.
Okay. And so as with most scenarios like this, it's difficult to follow the dot. So in addition to Councilwoman Tasco's request, if you could start with a family and how they would end up with HERO or PHCD -- MS. McCOLLOCH: Oh, I'm sorry. What I just described was the old Mini-PHIL program, not the HERO program. 109 6/2/08 - FINANCE - BILL 080500 I apologize. The way the Mini-PHIL worked -- I just misunderstood your question. The way Mini-PHIL worked, clients went to the housing counseling agencies and then they were referred --
They were referred to a local bank. MS. McCOLLOCH: Right, but GPUAC did a review first. The housing counseling agency met with the client, reviewed whatever his or her issues were, put together a package that was then -- that was recommending what the refinancing would be, and then that was given to GPUAC for review, and then that family, after that review was completed by GPUAC, was referred to the participating bank, and then the bank accepted or declined the loan application.
All right. This is a footnote, not a part of the discussion. It's very difficult for Blondell Reynolds Brown to follow what 110 6/2/08 - FINANCE - BILL 080500 you just described. So from a constituent service perspective, imagine how intimidating that process is for a family who is in a dire situation and fearful of losing a home. And it's a rhetorical statement. I don't know how we answer or fix that, but it's symptomatic of how we need to think from where constituents are when it comes to the mammoth possibility that they may be losing a home.
Councilwoman, if I could also clarify. The Mini-PHIL and PHIL-Plus were not foreclosure assistance loan programs. They were specifically home improvement loans for people who had less than perfect credit, but they were not designed at all for the situation you just described for where somebody is in that crisis situation. What the housing finance agency is offering the City is two products, the HERO loan, which is more specifically geared for the situation that you just 111 6/2/08 - FINANCE - BILL 080500 described and where we will give you the process that is used for that situation, and then the Repair and Renovate, which is more similar to the Mini-PHIL and PHIL-Plus, for those homeowners who need a home improvement loan and who can't get it through the traditional bank channels, and we'll give you both of those outlines.
Are you saying that you're going to have a program for people with less than perfect credit? Because if you're talking about the PHIL Loan program, it does not deal with that category of resident. The Mini-PHIL Loan program was designed to help those people who had less than perfect credit who were subjected to the predatory lenders in this city and got themselves in the position where they ended up in foreclosure. Not to refinance their property, but to help 112 6/2/08 - FINANCE - BILL 080500 those people who may have less than perfect credit obtain a loan to do home improvement that would keep them away from the predatory lenders. That was the purpose of the program, not to help with refinancing. MS. McCOLLOCH: Correct.
Because it would keep them out of the foreclosure. So the intent of the program was to address the issue of predatory lending. MS. McCOLLOCH: Right. The intent --
Now, the PHIL Loan program, you have to have good credit to get that loan. MS. McCOLLOCH: The intent of the Mini-PHIL was to offer a different product to repair properties so that families would not have the need to get predatory loans. Absolutely. And we can give you a report, a fuller report, on the Mini-PHIL program which we will prepare. And I apologize. I didn't 113 6/2/08 - FINANCE - BILL 080500 realize that that was going to be a topic today or I would have been more prepared with more information about it. But one of the issues that we discovered as we were implementing the program was that in fact although the banks were participating, the banks did not really offer, although they sort of said they would as a practical matter, the number of families with less than perfect credit, the target population that we were trying to address, they weren't really being served even though -- because the banks weren't approving those loans, and one of the things that we need to give you and the other members of Council is that information about how many loans were submitted to the banks, how many were declined and for what reasons, how many were accepted and for what reasons. We have those data. I just don't have them with me today, but we can prepare those.
Well, we 114 6/2/08 - FINANCE - BILL 080500 know it's not going to be 100 percent. MS. McCOLLOCH: Right.
You know that. But they did help about 240 families. They did help -- now, would it have been 242 or 243? But we got 240. MS. McCOLLOCH: Okay.
So I'm just telling you, it was not based on anything but being just mean spirited and vindictive. And it's not you. Okay? So I'm just not happy with that at all. MS. McCOLLOCH: Okay.
Thank you very much. There being no further testimony, this meeting is recessed until June 12th at 9:30 a.m. (Committee on Finance adjourned at 12:00 p.m.) - - - 115 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on June 2, 2008, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)