The Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation's NeighborWorks Home Ownership Center in Ventura will host a free foreclosure prevention solutions workshop on Friday.

The workshop will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in English and from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in Spanish at the center's office at 702 County Square Drive in Ventura.

Topics to be addressed at the workshop will include how local homeowners can deal with rising mortgage payments; how to recognize bad refinance loan deals; and how to maintain homeownership during the unexpected loss of a job or income. The workshop is free to community members, but they must preregister to attend. People interested in attending the workshop should call 659-6868, ext. 130.

Congresswoman Lois Capps, representing the 23rd District, is scheduled to attend the event as special guest and address the workshop attendees.

In addition to the workshop, the NeighborWorks Home Ownership Center can assist individuals and families with one-on-one foreclosure prevention counseling services through appointments. Counselors often can assist individuals in working with their current mortgage lenders to restructure payments or to secure new affordable and responsible refinance mortgages through a new loan-qualification technology program called R-HOME. The R-HOME technology can determine an individual's creditworthiness by assessing traditional and nontraditional payment history information. This alternative loan qualification process can especially assist families who have not been able to secure traditional credit ratings through mainstream credit assessments.

"We are offering free foreclosure prevention workshops and counseling services to people in the Ventura County and Santa Barbara County areas," says Bertha Garcia, director of the NeighborWorks Home Ownership Center. "We have already assisted many families and we are eager to assist others who may be facing mortgage loan resets. We are here to do what we can to assist people in getting the help they need and suggest options they may be unaware of."

CEDC is a private nonprofit developer of affordable real estate. It has served Ventura and Santa Barbara counties since 1981. In September 2001, CEDC expanded its services and opened a NeighborWorks Home Ownership Center in Saticoy to offer a comprehensive range of user-friendly counseling, education, and lending services to assist families in obtaining and preserving homeownership. The HOC's mission is to empower individuals and families to successfully purchase and retain their homes by providing education, counseling, and lending services; and to advocate for all individuals and families throughout the experience of owning a home, regardless of age, race, economic status, or other defining characteristics. The center is one of 90 NeighborWorks Home Ownership Centers in the United States. CEDC became a chartered member of the NeighborWorks network (www.nw.org) in 1999, and its expansion from Ventura into Santa Maria is being sponsored through a multi-year grant of $300,000 from NeighborWorks America.