Colorado Springs’ housing market has shown small signs of improvement in recent months, yet many homeowners still struggle.

“We speak with homeowners that have a wide range of issues they’re facing,” said Jodi Gelerter, president of the non-profit Pikes Peak Foreclosure Prevention Partnership in Colorado Springs. “It’s not only their mortgage payment, sometimes they can’t pay their mortgage payment because they can’t find a job…or they may be struggling to buy food.”

The partnership, whose volunteer service has assisted homeowners with foreclosure problems for years, will sponsor its Pikes Peak Housing and Community Resource Fair on Saturday in Colorado Springs.

The event is planned as a broad-based effort to assist homeowners and area residents with a variety of issues, including avoiding foreclosure, purchasing a home, finding affordable housing and managing their debt. Homeowners will receive information on how the foreclosure process works and will be able to meet with housing counselors and financial professionals. Information also will be available about the 2010 census and H1N1, or swine flu.

Several groups will staff booths, conduct classes and participate in panel discussions.

Participants will include the Colorado Foreclosure Hotline, Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Southern Colorado, the Pikes Peak Workforce Center, Partners in Housing Inc., the Rocky Mountain Community Land Trust, Pikes Peak Habitat for Humanity and Greccio Housing. Brothers Redevelopment Inc., a Denver-based non-profit, will have Spanish-speaking counselors at the event.

Representatives from Ent Federal Credit Union, Wells Fargo Bank and the Chase Home Ownership Center will answer loan-related questions. The Colorado Division of Civil Rights also will discuss discrimination issues and predatory lending. El Paso County Public Trustee Tom Mowle, whose office processes foreclosure filings, also will be on hand, along with representatives from the Colorado Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

While single-family building permits and home sales have improved each of the past few months, local foreclosure filings remain on pace to top 5,000 this year and set a record for the third consecutive year, according to the Public Trustee’s Office.

“We’re running into people who can’t save their home and need some place to go,” Gelerter said.

MORE INFORMATION

The Pikes Peak Housing and Community Resource Fair will be 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday Oct. 3 at the Hillside Community Center, 925 S. Institute St., in south central Colorado Springs. For more information, call the Pikes Peak Foreclosure Prevention Partnership at 444-8833, send an e-mail to jodigelerter@msn.com, or go to www.ppfpp.org.

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Gasoline prices are shown Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009, in Portland, Ore. Oil prices fell sharply Thursday for a second straight day as growing supplies of crude, gasoline and heating oil exposed how badly the recession has cut into energy demand. Photo by (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Rick Bowmer