by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Michael Figgins is working 60-hour weeks these days.
That might be OK if he were a private attorney with a major firm. But Figgins is the executive director of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid and those long days are directly attributable to the needs of Jacksonville’s indigent community.
More specifically, Figgins and his staff are inundated with clients seeking relief from bankruptcy and foreclosure. While the latter is grabbing the headlines these days, both issues are related and both mean standing room-only when JALA hosts its bankruptcy and foreclosure clinics.
While JALA’s clients face life-altering problems, Figgins is facing issues of his own: budget cuts from everywhere and not enough attorneys and staff to handle the number of cases JALA takes in on a weekly basis.
Help is on the way, though, and it’s through a public/private partnership between the City, a banker and a publicist. If that sounds like a campaign in the making, you’re right. However, no one is seeking office. The goal is to raise $1 million for JALA.
“The goal is to get this done in the next six months or by the end of the calendar year,” said City Council member Kevin Hyde, an attorney with Foley & Lardner. “I assume the City Council will vote on the funding Tuesday night.”
Hyde is referring to $184,840 that the Council Finance Committee approved last Monday. The bill is sponsored by Council members Glorious Johnson and Jack Webb, who began meeting in March to explore ways the City could help JALA meet funding shortfalls and deal with the foreclosure crisis at the same time.
With nearly $200,000 on the way, enter the private sector. Hyde has enlisted the help of McCormick Agency President Paul McCormick and Regions Bank Area Director Marty Lanahan, both of whom bring considerable contacts and experience to the initiative.
“Paul has been involved in JALA for a long time and he’s done a lot in the community,” said Hyde. “Marty is a leader in the banking industry.”
Hyde said members of his firm have committed to doing pro bono work for JALA, but he knows it’s not enough. It will take, Hyde says, a combination of individuals and foundations raising money and the local banks working with those who are facing foreclosure.
Hyde admits some of the foreclosures may be unavoidable. However, he’s looking to help those who are losing their homes due to unscrupulous mortgage practices or predatory lending.
“It will allow us to respond to the needs of the community as it relates to foreclosure,” said Figgins, adding that foreclosure creates other issues, many of which lead to crime. “Just like the more police on the street, the less crime. The more Legal Aid attorneys we have, the more cases we can take.”
Figgins said during the first quarter of this year there were about 3,500 foreclosure cases in the Jacksonville area — a big jump from last year. Figgins said the problem will likely get worse and he likens it to a disease in which the full effects aren’t known until years later.
“It will probably crest in the summer or fall of 2009,” said Figgins, adding he expects his office will still be dealing with those cases into 2011 and 2012.
McCormick said his role is to help spread the word about the fundraising goal and set up events designed to raise money.
“My job is to help on the public sector side,” he said. “We are not close to slowing down (with foreclosures) and we are not near the peak.”
McCormick is convinced properly arming JALA for the looming battles is imperative. He also said JALA has a proven track record.
“They have won every case when a house is up for foreclosure,” said McCormick, explaining that every mortgage leaves a paper trail, though often it isn’t easy to track. “If you can’t prove the paper trail, you can’t foreclose.”
McCormick has managed political campaigns and other initiatives, but nothing like this.
“Not even vaguely. It’s a blast,” he said.
Figgins said he will use the money to establish a JALA office near the areas of town hardest hit by foreclosure.
“We will do more in the community as opposed to this central location,” he said in the JALA offices on West Adams Street. “We will create a new presence where the foreclosure activity is the greatest.”
Figgins said the keys to preventing foreclosure are education and proper representation.