Summary: Three months ago, Jeff Neilsen sat in his Salt Lake City living room and listened to President Obama announce a new program for homeowners who need to rework their mortgages. He applied to his lender, Wells Fargo, and heard almost nothing. Julia Gordon of the Center for Responsible Lending says his experience is all too typical. She suggests the system is plainly broken. Neilsen is one of 6 million U.S. homeowners are flirting with foreclosure. NPR's Chris Arnold reports that in half those cases, foreclosure appears to benefit no one involved — not the families and not the banks. With Alex Blumberg, he visits one loan servicer, Ocwen, that reworks 75 percent of its troubled mortgages, as opposed to the industry average of 10 percent. (Chris and Alex produced a segment about this for This American Life.) Plus: From the suburbs of Chicago, a firefighter reports a remarkable change since the recession began.
