Free Press has an article about the Oakland Livingston Human Service Agency has joined forces with community libraries to help residents find alternatives to losing their biggest investments.  O.K., that sounds good, nothing like community spirit to solve community issues.  The concept is to place informational packets in the libraries where homeowners in Livingston county can just drop by and get access to the foreclosure help they need.

I do ask myself exactly how many homeowners facing a possible foreclosure are dropping by the library to check out some casual reading.  Unless the HSA is doing something to promote the availability of their informational packets, they’ll sit instead of being used.

Now, what would happen if the HSA was a little more proactive about stemming potential problems and actually getting their information in front of the homeowners.  The material is printed, so how much could it cost to mail the packets directly to the homeowners?  Let’s say $2.00 for an envelope, postage and the mailing label/addressing.  So far this year, they state 607 homes have gone into foreclosure, so that would cost $1214. or a little over $2500 a year if things don’t get a lot worse in Livingston county.

$2,500 - Balance that against the social costs of increasing foreclosures and neighborhood decay or just figure that if you only help 12 families that’s a cost of roughly $208 per family.  It’s not that much money.

If governments or agencies want to help people in foreclosure, they really should be learning from the people who have marketed to distressed homeowners for many years.  You’ll probably never find a foreclosure investor making packets of information and stacking them up in public places hoping someone will find them.  No, the investor will use public records to find distressed homeowners in order to get their message to that homeowner as early in the process as possible.

It’s not rocket science.