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Does group have foreclosure solution for Rock County?

BELOIT — A grassroots awareness group in Rock County is aggressively targeting the area’s high foreclosure rate as one of its first initiatives.

So aggressively, in fact, that the John Doe Movement predicts that its “Rescue America Project” will wipe out local foreclosures in a way that can be copied throughout the country.

But the details will have to wait until early August, when the group unveils its plan at the Eclipse Center in Beloit, said Mike Rorabeck, who founded the John Doe Movement in April.

“Foreclosures are a community problem that need a community solution,” he said.

He noted that local foreclosures started to rise a couple of years ago as adjustable rate mortgages came due.

Earlier this year, Rock County made national news when USA Today reported that the area had the biggest percentage increase in foreclosure actions in the country, a whopping 1,397 percent increase over 2008. The newspaper cited data from RealtyTrac, but a spokesman for that company later told the Gazette the data probably was incorrect.

At the time, the Rock County Clerk of Courts Office reported very different numbers: an average of 77 foreclosure actions per month in 2008 and 112 per month in 2009. That’s a 46 percent increase, a far cry from nearly 1,400 percent.

Still, the growing numbers concern Rorabeck.

“It’s not a Beloit problem, or a Janesville problem, or one for Edgerton or Milton,” Rorabeck said. “It’s a community problem that affects every single person in the area.”

More than 300 seats will be available at the Aug. 4 event, and Rorabeck hopes to fill them all. He’s inviting every community, church and civic leader he can reach, as well as anyone else interested in helping their community solve a significant problem.

The “Rescue America Project” is a collaboration of the John Doe Movement, M&I Bank, the Stateline Community Foundation and Neighborhood Housing Services.

Rorabeck said the community can pull together on the project to end all foreclosures, stabilize the local housing market and home values and help those in some stage of foreclosure.

Christine Schlicting, executive director of Neighborhood Housing Services in Beloit, said community awareness is the first step in solving the foreclosure problem.

“I’m optimistic,” she said. “This offers some hope. I’m impressed by the level of dedication of this group of citizens.”

Schlicting said her agency has experienced a “huge” increase in its foreclosure caseload. The agency worked with 52 families in 2007, 109 in 2008 and already has 70 new cases in 2009.

“The problem is now with the economy,” she said. “People have either lost their jobs, or they aren’t working the hours or overtime to support the home they bought.

“People are in a real tight spot, and any little thing can tip them over.”

Rorabeck said the John Doe Movement is a community awareness group comprising an array of members in all walks of life and occupations. It’s grounded in the question “What have you done today to help your neighbor?”

“We are a mouthpiece for those in need,” he said, adding that the group will help raise funds for projects in need.

In addition to tackling the county’s foreclosure problem, the group is helping the Dutter House Foundation in Beloit, a home for disabled children. It also plans to take its community awareness message into area schools.

“People don’t naturally think of what they can do to help others,” Rorabeck said. “We’re on this planet in a survival mode, we’re busy, we just block things out because it’s easier to cope.

“But if the community can join together, we can eliminate a lot of the needs of our neighbors.”