While Cooper said she contacted her lender, she received little sympathy for her plight and soon she was setting up a short sale to avoid outright foreclosure. Now living with her parents in Fairfield, she said her 10-year-old son is upset about having to leave their home.
“I will say that I found it amazing that as a single parent there is no help out there. People say there is. But if you make at least $30,000 a year, you are not getting anything,” she said.
“No one cares,” Cooper added.
According to statistics from the Butler County Sheriff’s Office, the foreclosure situation locally is getting worse before it gets better.
In March, 296 properties were filed for foreclosures and 110 were sold at auction compared to 221 received and 71 sold in March 2009, the sheriff’s office said.
And while the same number of properties were sold at auction in April as the same point last year — 95 total — 44 more properties were filed for foreclosure.
Ohio has been named by the federal government as one of the hardest hit states for foreclosure. While not a flattering title, the designation recently garnered it up to $172 million in foreclosure prevention help from the U.S. Treasury Department.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2843 or jheffner@coxohio.com.
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