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Michigan Foreclosure Prevention Project is a collaborative statewide project involving several legal services programs. The Project is comprised of attorneys from 7 major legal services programs who will work as a statewide foreclosure prevention unit. The goal of the Project is to provide comprehensive and coordinated foreclosure prevention advocacy throughout the state by 1) providing direct legal representation to homeowners facing foreclosure, 2) providing support to housing counseling organizations, 3) coordinating policy advocacy on a statewide basis, and 4) providing training and technical support. The National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) will provide training and advocacy assistance. At this time, the MFPP funds 11 foreclosure specialist attorneys housed in legal services programs in every region of the state.
The Michigan Legal Services Programs participating in this Project are:
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Legal Aid and Defender Association
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Legal Aid of Western Michigan
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Legal Services of Eastern Michigan
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Legal Services of Northern Michigan
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Legal Services of South Central Michigan
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Michigan Legal Services
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Michigan Poverty Law Program
Other Collaborating Organizations are: Michigan Foreclosure TaskForce (convened by Community Economic Development Association of Michigan (CEDAM)) and Lakeshore Legal Aid/Counsel and Advocacy Law Line.
Support Services
The Project will provide the following services:
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Project Evaluations
As part of the administration of the Project, annual outside evaluations have been scheduled to determine the effectiveness of the Project and if necessary, to suggest changes to the Project model. To date, two outside evaluations of the project have been conducted. The first was conducted by WS and Associates, a Kalamazoo-based human services evaluation, research, and policy firm. This report summarized both the case activities and the partner opinions about the MFPP after its first full year of program activities. Overall, it found that the Project got off to an effective start and has had a powerful impact in foreclosure prevention across the state.
The second appraisal was a peer evaluation of the entire project through its second year of operation. The peer review team, which visited Michigan during the week of June 14-18, 2010, included John Tull (John A. Tull & Associates, Colorado), Luis Jaramillo (California Rural Legal Assistance, California), and Maeve Elise Brown (Housing and Economic Rights Advocates, California). We anticipate receiving their final report in October 2010.
Project Funding
The Michigan Foreclosure Prevention Project is funded by grants from the Kresge Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Michigan State Bar Foundation, the Institute for Foreclosure Legal Assistance (IFLA) - a project of the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) - managed by the National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA), the Equal Justice Works AmeriCorps Legal Fellowship Program, and by a contract with the Michigan State Housing Development Authority.
