Countrywide Helps ACORN Reach Katrina Homeowners.(Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now)(Countrywide Financial Corp)

Houston -- Countrywide Financial Corp. and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now have launched a joint telephone and door-to-door campaign to locate Hurricane Katrina evacuees and connect them with their lender.

As of now, thousands of displaced Gulf Coast homeowners have not contacted their mortgage lender to discuss postponement of payment options or other possible steps toward financial recovery.

The "Contact Your Mortgage Lender for Assistance Today" program will target Houston as one of several cities with a high presence of hurricane evacuees, and also Dallas, San Antonio, Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Homeowners are urged to call a special toll-free hotline.

"Despite our best efforts to reach them, there are still a number of customers who we have been unable to reach, limiting our ability to provide assistance to them," said Countrywide managing director of mortgage servicing, Michael Gross.

The initiative follows a series of newspaper ads Countrywide placed last month in newspapers in the affected communities, the bank said, inviting Countrywide customers to call their lender. In addition, the ACORN Housing Helpline was enlisted as an intermediary between customers of other mortgage companies and their lenders.

Following guidelines established by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, HUD and other entities that own or insure mortgages, lenders can offer postponed payments, repayment plans, loan modifications or loan reinstatement, and other assistance to ...