By JIM BARON

Rhode Island is experiencing its fifth straight quarter of  “a record-breaking number of foreclosures,” Attorney General Patrick Lynch noted Friday, “and the trend has been for them to increase.”

On the national level, Lynch said, the National Association of Attorneys General learned at a conference last year that 3 million homes across America were “on the verge of being lost.” In the one year since that meeting, 1.5 million of those homes have gone into foreclosure.
And it is not only people who have gotten behind on their mortgage payments.
“There is a large pool of tenants, tenants who know nothing about it until they get a notice from a bank that is taking over the property and they are getting thrown out of their house,” the attorney general said.
When that happens, he said, one of the agencies people turn to for help is their state attorney general’s office, another place is the mayor’s office in their city or town, or a not-for-profit housing corporation
That, he said, “is why we need to pull a forum together to offer information” to people facing foreclosure as well as the collateral casualties renting from landlords who are being foreclosed upon.
One such forum will be held Saturday at Jenks Junior High School in Pawtucket from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Attending that forum will be Lynch, Pawtucket Mayor James Doyle, Richard Godfrey, director of Rhode Island Housing, Nancy Smith Greer of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as representatives of the Housing Network of RU, the Statewide Housing Action Coalition, BVCAP and Money Management International.
“Mayor Doyle and Richard Godfrey have been tremendous,” in helping put together the event, which will be repeated in other parts of the state in coming weeks, Lynch said. “There are many people: public sector, private sector and not-for-profits making some efforts to inform people of what their rights are. What I saw there was a lack of cooperation, coordination, to have one-stop shopping so that people who are down — depressed financially, if not personally — don’t have to go to several different forums on several different occasions and connect the dots.
“My thought was why don’t we all stand together at one forum so a person can walk in and inform themselves from a number of different people potential steps they can take to protect themselves.”
One-on-one consulting will be available and those attending are asked to come with all relevant mortgage and financial paperwork to show the consultants.
There will be four education and question-and-answer session on specific topics. They include:
--- Be an informed tenant.
Tenants’ rights in Rhode Island, such as applying for public and subsidized housing; security deposit rights; rent increase procedures; making repairs that your landlord refuses to reimburse you for; evictions for non-payment of rent, or for reasons other than non-payment of rent, such as termination of tenancy.
--- Be an informed housebuyer.
Counselors will explore all aspects of the home buying process, including what to expect when buying a home, down-payment and closing-cost options, aw well as purchasing a foreclosed property.
--- Know your rights.
Legal tips for home buyers, sellers and owners. Information will be provided about legal issues dealing with real estate, such as the value of professional advisors, understanding a purchase and sale agreement and the role of bankruptcy.
--- Dollars and sense
Credit counseling and foreclosure prevention for consumers, including financial literacy tools as well as insight to help save your home from foreclosure.
Each seminar lasts 45 minutes and will repeat so you can attend more than one.
“The reality is: this is not over,” Lynch told The Times. “People are saying: ‘Is this a recession? Are we deepening toward a depression?’ The number of homes is escalating. I will -- sadly, but realistically – likely continue to escalate into the next quarter.
“We need to take these steps to try to offer information that may help avert some of, not necessarily all of the foreclosures that will happen. Even those foreclosures that have to happen because people have over-extended themselves, they can get the proper advice on how that should occur and not lose even more than they should as is declines toward the foreclosure moment.”
To register for the forum or for more information, contact the attorney general’s Consumer Protection Unit at (401) 274-4400 ext. 2366 or Rhode Island Housing’s help center at (401) 467-1130.