As part of its many efforts to reach distressed homeowners and restore consumer confidence, Chase coordinates with nonprofit partners, local government agencies, Realtors, trade associations, etc. to participate in large-scale foreclosure prevention outreach events in many markets.

Beginning in February of this year (2009), for example, Chase partnered with California’s Department of Real Estate (DRE) & the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on “Project Homeowner”, a 5-city statewide grassroots

initiative aimed at helping Californians avoid foreclosure. Chase was the first major corporation to partner financially with California’s DRE on a foreclosure prevention and education initiative. The outreach events were held in Stockton, Riverside, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Salinas.At the events, Chase representatives, along with HUD-certified housing counselors from nonprofit groups and several other lenders from the Hope Now Alliance preservation partnership provided one-on-one English and Spanish counseling to homeowners. Representatives were also on hand to offer financial literacy information, home buyer education, and debt counseling, and to pre-qualify new home buyers.

The California events reached unprecedented scale. At the Chase event in Los Angeles, up to 925 homeowners received free counseling and nearly 3,000 people attended the event, including homeowners and their families, 250 volunteers and 60 licensed counselors. The Los Angeles event was the largest Chase homeownership community outreach event ever.

“I know I speak for the whole team when I tell you that we were very excited to be taking part in this initiative,” said Vince Orduno, a Chase business development manager. “Project Homeowner was the right thing to do and it gave each one on the team a deep personal satisfaction to be able to participate and help.”