Raleigh, NC – October 27, 2011 – Twenty families in Wake County no longer face foreclosure, thanks to The Homeownership Center, a division of CESI Solutions, a Raleigh-based national nonprofit credit counseling agency. The Center announced today that it has disbursed $285,000 in assistance to Triangle homeowners as a Participating Housing Counseling Organization for the North Carolina Foreclosure Prevention Fund.

Administered by the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, the N.C. Foreclosure Prevention Fund helps homeowners who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own while they search or retrain for new employment. The assistance is in the form of a zero-interest loan that is used to make the homeowners’ monthly mortgage payments. In Wake County, the maximum assistance amount is $24,000 (24 months of payments).

“All of us at The Homeownership Center and CESI Solutions are proud to have helped so many local families keep their homes. This is a major milestone for us, and we’re looking forward to helping even more people. We encourage other Wake County residents who need help to reach out to us about qualifying for assistance,” says the Housing Program Manager Sheryl Merritt.

Statewide, more than 2,200 homeowners have been assisted by the loans, which are funded by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The assistance is expected to be available in North Carolina for the next three to four years.

Those interested in learning more about how to receive assistance should contact The Homeownership Center at (866) 635-6189.

Click here for more information about The Homeownership Center. A complete list of counseling agencies participating in the N.C. Foreclosure Prevention Fund is available at www.ncforeclosurehelp.org