Roxbury nonprofit gets $20K to aid foreclosure prevention, counseling program

February 16, 2012|Boston.com Staff, Globe Staff

Boston.com Staff

A Roxbury-based nonprofit community development organization has been awarded a $20,000 grant to support its program that officials say helps hundreds of homeowners from Boston and the region avoid foreclosure through in-person counseling and intervention.

The “Foreclosure Prevention Counseling Program” at Urban Edge received the award from Citi Community Development.

Among the foreclosure prevention program’s funders, “Citi’s support has been multi-layered and unique,” Urban Edge said in a press release.

In 2007, the Citi Foundation’s “Citi Community Scholar Intern Program” provided a $10,000 start-up grant five years ago that allowed Urban Edge to hire a recent college graduate as the first intern to the nonprofit developer’s “Community Programs Department.”

That Intern later became a “trusted staff member,” and Urban Edge has built on that early success by recruiting interns who are focused on foreclosure prevention and attend local law schools, churches and firms, officials said.

Interns at the nonprofit, including the four currently working there, are trained in the community developer’s policies, procedures and systems and are equipped to provide one-on-one, full-service counseling — from intake to resolution — for the homeowners assigned to them.

Since 2009, philanthropic arms of the New York City-based international financial services company have supported Urban Edge with a total of $90,000.

“This track record has made Citi the most consistent private sector funder of Urban Edge’s foreclosure prevention program and has helped provide the program the stability, quality and growth required to serve homeowners from every section of Boston and from dozens of other Massachusetts cities and towns,” the Boston nonprofit said in a statement.

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