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Help in a financial crisis

Financial Relief Solutions: Help when you need it

A true story of a family in need

[March 8, 2010]

They were going through a divorce. And with the added expense of separation, there wasn't enough money to pay all the bills.

Reluctantly, they agreed to put their Spokane Valley house on the market. The timing couldn’t have been worse: With the economy at its lowest since the Great Depression, no one was interested in paying enough to cover what the couple owed on first and second mortgages.

Now, in addition to the pain of divorce, they faced the prospect of foreclosure, and possibly bankruptcy.

The husband wondered: Was there a way he could keep the only home their 6-year-old son had known?

He checked with the well-known national bank that held his first mortgage. "They were no help at all," said the 46-year-old homeowner. They wouldn't even talk to me."

The reception was different when he called STCU, the local credit union that held most of his financial accounts, including the second mortgage on the house.

Loan Officer Debra Jackson told the worried father about a program called Financial Relief Solutions (FRS), which STCU started when it became apparent the recession was going to be especially deep. In 2009, the FRS team helped more than 160 members who were facing financial crisis – including 42 members at risk of losing their homes.

Jackson explained that the last thing a credit union wants is to take possession of a home or vehicle. After all, the people who live in those houses and drive those cars are members, not customers.

Then, Jackson rolled up her sleeves and started looking for a solution to keep father and son in the house they love. She worked to consolidate and restructure the loans with a monthly payment the homeowner could afford.

"Without her and the credit union, I would never have been able to keep the house," the grateful man said. "It would have foreclosed, and I still would have owed money."