Maryland Operation Uses 'Special Weapon' To Offer Free Foreclosure Rescue Help; Leads Banksters To Set Up Special Lines To Field Inquiries

In Timonium, Maryland, The Baltimore Sun reports:

• Inside a small cubicle in Timonium, Jessica Gatton Facini is saving homes. The 26-year-old sorts through foreclosure and lien documents from Baltimore homeowners, identifies a problem and then navigates the bureaucracy of big banks and government agencies in search of a solution.
  
  It's a challenging task — some homeowners would say impossible — but Facini wields a weapon most Marylanders do not. When she contacts a bank, her caller I.D. says "U.S. Congress."
  
  As part of a little-known effort, congressional staffers across the country have been calling banks relentlessly to bargain for help for homeowners. In response, some of the country's biggest financial entities, such as Wells Fargo and Bank of America, have even set up special lines to field the congressional staffer members' calls.

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• Facini works for U.S. Rep. C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger, one of several Maryland congressmen who meet with area residents about preventing foreclosures. Sometimes hundreds of people pack the rooms, looking for advice.
  
  "With this terrible economy, people that need help, they don't know where to go," Ruppersberger says. "They're calling us because they need help."
  
  Facini says she has worked on nearly 600 cases personally. Rep. Elijah Cummings' office, which coverages a larger swath of Baltimore, has averaged about 2,000 foreclosure cases a year since 2009.

For more, see Congressional staffers fight banks, City Hall over foreclosures ('They would have took my house,' Baltimore homeowner says).