Listen to Frank and Judi Viola's first-hand account of how they saved their home.

For over four years, Frank and Judi Viola struggled with a number of personal setbacks that nearly cost them their home of 22 years. Their story has a happy ending due to the help they received along the way. Now a national news program is calling to share their good news with others.

Producers from The Story™, a national radio program whose goal is to “find people whose lives are intersecting with significant issues in the news and give them the opportunity to tell their story”, recently contacted Neighborhood Housing Services of Lackawanna County (NHS) looking for a family who had participated in Lackawanna County’s Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Program. NHS connected the producers to the Violas, who had been working with an NHS housing counselor in an attempt to secure a loan modification from their lender.

Jesse Ergott, executive director of NHS, was thrilled at the opportunity to share a story with a positive outcome, especially when it came to the topic of families facing the threat of foreclosure. “We do a lot of foreclosure prevention work, and we know times are hard for many people. ” Ergott said. “We talked with Frank and Judi and agreed that sharing their story could help provide much-needed hope for people in similar situations.”

NHS has been providing counseling and mitigation services for homeowners delinquent on their mortgage for a number of years as part of a larger national foreclosure prevention effort. The National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program (NFMC), administered by NeighborWorks America, has made it possible for agencies like NHS to offer assistance to homeowners.

NHS leveraged its valuable partnership with NeighborWorks America and joined forces on the regional level with U.S. Senator Bob Casey and Judge Terrence Nealon of the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas to craft and execute the program. The collaborative and creative nature of the NHS partnership helped to make The Viola’s story a true success.

As for the homeowners themselves? The Violas are just relieved to have the ordeal behind them. “It still feels surreal, like it hasn’t sunk in yet,” Mrs. Viola said during a recent interview with the Scranton Times-Tribune. “We hope this helps other people. Just hang in there!”

The full interview with the Violas can be heard on The Story’s ™Web site: www.thestory.org.

About NHS
Founded in 1981, NHS is a private, non-profit organization that works to strengthen the financial stability of the families in the region through homeownership creation and preservation. Its vision for strong, healthy northeastern Pennsylvania neighborhoods is built on the concepts of resident empowerment, redevelopment and public/private partnership. To reach this vision, NHS operates a HomeOwnership Center through which it provides homebuyer education classes, personalized housing & credit counseling services, home rehabilitation programs, and affordable financing products for modest-income families.  In the last decade alone, NHS has created nearly 350 homeowners for a direct economic impact of over $21,000,000. More information can be found at www.nhslackawannapa.org.

About The Story™
The Story™ is produced at North Carolina Public Radio – WUNC and is hosted by Dick Gordon. It is co-produced and distributed by American Public Media and can be heard on public radio stations across the country. More information can be found at www.thestory.org.