The line started on the hot and steamy K Street sidewalk and slowly wound into a hotel in the heart of Washington. During a period of several days thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure gathered a few blocks from the White House in a last-ditch effort to save their homes and their finances.

Sponsored by the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA), the Save the Dream of Homeownership event showed something that has long been missing from the foreclosure debate: The faces of real people facing real hardship, people no different than you or I.

There was a certain nobility to the process. People waited for hours to see counselors but nobody shoved or pushed, everyone was treated respectfully. At hundreds of tables in ornate meeting rooms routinely used by the rich and famous, counselors contacted lenders across the country and tried to work out arrangements that would make sense to everyone.

What kind of arrangements? The usual trade went something like this: If the lender or servicer could modify a mortgage then a foreclosure could be prevented. And while a loan modification might mean reduced profits and even a loss for loan owners, such results would be far better than the massive losses that were sure to come with a foreclosure.

Some borrowers saw rates drop five and six percentage points while others saw principal balances reduced by thousands of dollars.

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Published: July 30, 2008

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