by David Chapman
Staff Writer
City officials and members of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid weren’t content to sit by and watch the foreclosure crisis affecting Jacksonville homeowners spiral further out of control — so now they are tackling the problem head on.
Thursday marked the official grand opening of JALA’s new Northside office, dubbed Project House-Hold, at the Ribault Family Resource Center.
Located in the heart of some of the hardest hit zip codes in terms of foreclosed houses, the hope is distressed homeowners will have an easier and more comfortable means to seek assistance.
“The need is just unbelievable,” said City Council member Glorious Johnson, “and the problem is not just going to go away.”
Johnson and Council member Jack Webb helped secure funding for Project House-Hold. The City provided $184,840 to JALA for the office, with The Community Foundation also supplying a $30,000 grant to hire two attorneys.
Attorneys James Millard and Allison Albert, both Florida Coastal School of Law graduates, will be in the office full time providing counseling, loss mitigation efforts and legal representation to homeowners in need of guidance.
“It’s a great opportunity and I am very excited about coming in here and helping people who need it,” said Albert. “Doing work like this, I’m able to sleep at night.”
Millard, a Jacksonville native, agreed and said he sees why efforts through Project House-Hold will make a difference.
“I can’t think of anything else more rewarding,” he said. “Reasons like these are why I went to law school ... it’s about strengthening communities by helping save one house, two houses, 10 houses at a time and working together to make Jacksonville a better place to live.”
Funding efforts for the project began when JALA Executive Director Michael Figgins began communicating with Johnson about some of the statistics in Jacksonville’s hardest hit foreclosure areas.
“Michael started sending me statistics about the foreclosure rates in these areas,” said Johnson. “And it was heartbreaking to think of the large number of affected families. I just thought, these people need help.”
Figgins said the need for foreclosure assistance has been steady but without funding the Northside office wouldn’t be a reality.
With the help of Johnson, Webb and members of the United Way, who helped secure Ribault Family Resource Center office space, Figgins said the plan has come to fruition.
“It means they won’t have to come Downtown and battle parking and long lines,” said Figgins, referring to JALA’s Downtown office on Adams Street. “For many, it can be a comfort thing and we hope that by being physically closer to neighborhoods it encourages more people who need help to come in.”
Though the office’s official grand opening was Thursday, it’s been open for a week — and has already had quite a few walk-ins.
“In the first week alone, we’ve had 40 people come in,” said Albert.
But Johnson doesn’t think they’ll be the last distressed homeowners coming through the doors.
“When people find out that the office is here, you might have a line going out the door,” said Johnson. “It’s a big problem across the country and this is very valuable service. I’m extremely thankful.”
Attorneys James Millard and Allison Albert will be stationed at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid’s new Northside office. Four of the five hardest hit zip codes in terms of foreclosure are located near the office, so the need was great, said Council member Glorious Johnson.
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