Institute for Foreclosure Legal Assistance

http://www.naca.net/News-Events/News.aspx?item=46914

Deadline: January 7, 2008

The Institute for Foreclosure Legal Assistance (IFLA), a project of the Center for Responsible Lending and managed by the National Association of Consumer Advocates, has announced that it is soliciting proposals to fund local legal programs assisting borrowers in danger of having their homes foreclosed.

IFLA is funded through a $15 million grant from the investment firm Paulson and Co., Inc. NACA will be awarding 10 to 15 grants of about $100,000 for the first year of what will be multi-year grants.

The goal of the funding is to increase the legal capacity of organizations dedicated to representing individual homeowners faced with foreclosure, to provide training and resources to non-profit organizations performing this important work and to build a national network of attorneys who work collaboratively to develop legal, legislative and community-based solutions to our nation’s foreclosure crisis.

Grant programming under IFLA will operate over a minimum three year period. Initially IFLA will provide grants to non-profit legal organizations that are currently running successful foreclosure defense projects. Funding will be earmarked to hire additional attorneys to represent homeowners faced with foreclosure. During this first year, in addition to these cash grants, IFLA plans to provide in-kind resources to our grantees as well as to other organizations that will include trainings and training materials, back-up and support services, and other legal resources needed to carry out project objectives.

In subsequent years, IFLA plans to substantially increase the cash grant awards and expand the grantees to include non-profit organizations that do not currently have a foreclosure legal defense project but have demonstrated the willingness, ability and leadership to expand their work and create this type of project.