Predatory lending is the practice of charging excessive interest rates and up-front fees on loans secured by the borrower's home. Targeting vulnerable homeowners, predatory lenders drain equity from communities, forcing homeowners to foreclosure and increasing vacancy rates throughout the city. The City simultaneously employs four tactics to combat predatory lending: Consumer Education and Outreach, Legal Assistance, Creation of Alternative Loan Products, and Research.

Research and Coordination
The Reinvestment Fund meets monthly with housing counseling and legal agencies to review predatory lending cases, provide strategic advice and identify trends.

In order to connect people with needed housing counseling services, a local non-profit operates the SaveYourHomePhilly hotline:

215-334-HOME

The Hotline, a program seeded by Freddie Mac, operated by Philadelphia Legal Assistance, takes calls from homeowners who want more information about loans home equity or mortgage loans or people who think they may be victims of predatory lending. The Hotline has been publicized in the local press, on TV, and in the City's water bills. Hotline operators refer callers in need to housing counseling agencies for further assistance. The Homeownership Counseling Association of Delaware Valley trains housing counselors to identify predatory practices as well as to seek relief for victims.

Legal Assistance
Attorneys at Community Legal Services provide advice to housing counselors on complex predatory lending cases and, where possible, litigate cases to seek relief for homeowners that have been victimized. Callers to the SaveYourHomePhilly Hotline are sometimes referred directly for legal assistance, housing counselors refers others.