With the number of foreclosures on the rise, a Cleveland-based foreclosure counseling organization is joining the struggle to keep Southwest Ohioans in their homes.

Empowering and Strengthening Ohio's People (ESOP), founded in 1993 as the East Side Organizing Project, is openning an office in either Monroe or Middletown to serve the Cincinnati-Dayton area, according to Shane Lightle, ESOP's manager for southern Ohio.

Lightle said the office may open as soon as January 2010 if the necessary funding is procured.

According to the Butler County Sheriff's Office, the sheriff received 2,266 foreclosure filings during all of 2008. As many as 2,338 foreclosures have already been received during the first 11 months of 2009.

ESOP joins a group of home ownership defense groups established in Butler County and the surrounding area.

Lorrie Vistola, director of Neighborhood Housing Services of Hamilton (NHS), said the additional help will be welcome.

"There is definitely more need for (foreclosure help) than there are of us," Vistola said.

NHS is part of the Butler County Home Ownership Preservation Group, an area consortium of foreclosure assistance programs that includes the Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati.

Vistola said the consortium is open to work with other groups.

"It's basically everyone trying to pool their resources together and stay on top of things," Vistola said. "We are open to everybody, and we really get a wide range of groups and people who show up."

The group has recently been running advertisements encouraging homeowners in trouble to seek help. Many homeowners facing foreclosure are hesitant to seek assistance and others fall through the cracks, Vistola said.

"We really try to get people to contact us sooner than later," Vistola said. "The success rate is much higher if someone's house is not going up for sheriff's auction next week. Nobody likes to air their dirty laundry … people were just letting their houses go to foreclosure."

The consortium is making an effort to reach out to homeowners in trouble.

"When any kind of lender files for foreclosure and a homeowner is served with papers, they also get a letter with information about us and how to get help," Vistola said.

Lightle said ESOP has noticed the trend, especially in the south of the state.

"In some of the rural areas of southern Ohio, people don't want to come in," Lightle said. "They feel like they're asking for a handout and they don't want to ask any agency for assistance in any way. There's a stigma - that's a big barrier ... We tell people 'this is you demanding fair treatment from your lender,' and their outlook changes almost immediately."

Noel Mordan, attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio, worked with ESOP and said it has unconventional but effective tactics to bring lenders to the table.

"As far as I know, they do good work," Mordan said. "I've referred people to (them) … They've been pretty aggressive in dealing with lenders … they'll go camp out on the bank president's lawn."

Mordan, who has worked with homeowners for seven years, said lenders do not expect resistance from foreclosure customers.

"(Lenders) are counting on no opposition," Mordan said. "When we show up and offer opposition, the case changes."

While Lightle said ESOP has close relationships with many lenders, he said its tactics are a "hammer to get lenders to do what they should have done in the first place."

"For four months, Chase bank didn't issue a single modification to any of our homeowners, so earlier this year, we used our ESOP branches all over the state to get homeowners to march on 11 different Chase branches simultaneously, make phone calls and deliver letters," Lightle said. "Within 24 hours, we had 36 (mortgage) modifications. When you can shine a big, bright light on the fungus that is their business practices, they clean it up quickly."

ESOP has leveraged public opinion to reach formal agreements about the handling of homeowners' cases with many lenders.

"We have structured written agreements with almost every lender that we come across in Ohio that people whose loans we represent have to be treated in a specific way, such as confirmation of receipt of paperwork, and responding to all calls and e-mails within 24 hours," Lightle said. "We know the tricks these banks do."

According to Lightle, it is industry practice to make the paperwork and process of applying for loan modification very complicated with the hope that homeowners will give up due to "administrative fatigue."

Lightle said not all lenders are difficult.

"It's just a joy to work with small and medium-sized companies," Lightle said. "They bend over backwards to help their customers. We've never had to organize against them because they are so responsive … the large lenders, the 'monster megabanks,' (foreclosure) is a cost-benefit analysis for them."

Lightle said ESOP looks forward to working with area foreclosure prevention groups.

"We're not here to step on anybody's toes," Lightle said. "We want to be a support not just for homeowners but also for the organizations in the community that are providing similar services already."

ESOP, NHS and the Legal Aid society are all certified as foreclosure prevention groups by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). A full list of HUD certified groups is available at http://www.hud.gov.