Housing counselor works to reduce local foreclosures

Lou Adkins of the Salisbury Community Development Corporation. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Lou Adkins of the Salisbury Community Development Corporation and her husband Fred meet for a walk in Hurley Park. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Lou Adkins of the Salisbury Community Development Corporation and her husband Fred meet for a walk in Hurley Park. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Lou Adkins of the Salisbury Community Development Corporation. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

By Susan Shinn

For The Salisbury Post

Lou Adkins is happy to talk about the orchids she raises at her home on High Rock Lake. Or the daily walks she takes with husband Fred at Hurley Park. Or her two children, Mary Hunt and Mark. Or how much she loves taking yoga with Anne Waters in Spencer.

Ask her to talk about herself, however, and she very nearly clams up.

It's not that she's a shy person, far from it. It's just that she'd rather talk about her job — no wait, edit that word — her passion.

Lou, 70, is a housing counselor with the Salisbury Community Development Corporation.

She absolutely, positively refuses to lose a house to foreclosure.

"It's interesting how I found her," says Chanaka Yatawara, the CDC's executive director.

Nearly nine years ago, he called Lou, who was then his counterpart in Lexington.

"I asked her for help in hiring a housing counselor," he says.

"How serious are you?" Lou asked.

"I'm very serious," he said.

"I might be interested," Lou said.

She called him back in 5 minutes.

"I liked it much better when I was a housing counselor, working with the people," Lou explains.

She's good.

She has a beautiful lucite award on her desk, having been named North Carolina's outstanding housing counselor in 2002.

In his words, Chanaka "cut a deal" with her when she turned 65. She went from working five days a week to four.

"She hasn't come back with something for 70," he says, smiling.

"Three days? No way!" Lou says incredulously. "I've got too much to do!"

Originally, Lou helped first-time home buyers purchase a house. But when Pillowtex announced its closing in Kannapolis in 2003, Lou and Chanaka knew that they had to do something to help the people who were displaced.

"We did not having funding to pay mortgages," Chanaka remembers.

"Nobody was doing anything at that time."

Soon after, Bob Lippard with United Way approached Chanaka, with a $3,400 grant from First Reformed Church in Landis.

"We used that funding," Chanaka says.

"And made up our own program," Lou says, finishing his sentence.

Grants from the Blanche and Julian Robertson Family Foundation had helped get the CDC up and running in 1998. Since its inception]\, the foundation has given money to support its home ownership program, the Park Avenue revitalization project, computers for new homes and a home maintenance program.

David Setzer, the foundation's executive director, notes that no requests have been made since 2006. The foundation likes to see groups it funds become self-sufficient.

"I was just impressed with her," Dave says of Lou. "I've always heard good things about her and the way she deals with clients. She is just so open and ready to help. She has found a cause and is just loving it."

Lou began meeting with homeowners who were in danger of losing their homes. She put together hand-written budgets for them.

"It worked," she says.

She called mortgage companies to renegotiate terms on behalf of her clients.

"She will not take no for an answer from mortgage companies," Chanaka says.

"I will not lose a house," Lou says firmly.

In the meantime, the legislature began a mortgage protection program for displaced workers who went back to school.

Lou first got involved with community development corporations as a volunteer.

She has a degree in social work, and was a Realtor in Lexington, working with Habitat for Humanity. She chaired that city's housing coalition.

"It took over my life," she admits. "Part of this is a passion for social work. I'm also a big mental health advocate."

Her son is mentally ill, so she can empathize with the stress her clients are under.

As you might guess, the number of clients Lou sees monthly has grown the past couple years to some 70 a month.

Almost two years ago, Robbie Stevens was hired as the Salisbury CDC's second housing counselor.

The numbers aren't going down, Chanaka notes.

"You hear about the economy getting better," he says, "but we don't see it. "It's not here."

Several times, Lou has had clients wait until the last minute to call for help. One client called on a Thursday when his house was scheduled to be sold at the courthouse the next Tuesday. And that Monday was a holiday.

"That was freaking me out," Lou says, "but we got it stopped that morning of the sale.

"We're gonna get it stopped."

Lou calls Clerk of Court Jeff Barger "absolutely fabulous."

Barger sends clients to Lou.

When homeowners getting behind with mortgage payments, Lou says, some people can handle it on their own.

But some can't.

That's where Lou comes in.

"They come in for an appointment and I ask them to explain their situation," Lou says, "and we go from there."

Lou has many types of loan modifications at her disposal.

"There are different options for different people," says Lou, who works closely with the N.C. Banking Commission.

Sometimes, homeowners will end up making payments for a longer period, but they stay in their homes.

"As long as people have some money," Lou says, "we can help them.

"Chanaka is right. I will not give up."

Lou and Fred have had a house at High Rock Lake for years, but moved there permanently 15 years ago.

"I have never regretted it," Lou says.

She has flower beds everywhere and a big vegetable garden in the summer. She grows orchids in a glassed-in porch that faces the lake.

Husband Fred, also 70, is a retired general contractor who still does home inspections. The two meet weekdays at Hurley Park to walk after Fred finishes exercising in the cardiac rehab unit.

"Neither one of us has any plans to totally retire," Lou says.

When she does have some time to herself, she loves to read. She still has many friends in Lexington.

"We do a lot of entertaining in the summer," Lou says. "We have a boat and we still do all the lake activities. We're always outside doing something."

Those friends reciprocate by inviting Lou and Fred to the beach or mountains. Other than that, they don't do a whole lot of traveling.

"It's just such a hassle," Lou says.

She and Fred did celebrate their 70th birthdays in February when their daughter sent them to the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean.

"That was fabulous," Lou reports. "We just loved it. It was so warm."

Back at home, Lou and Fred have been taking cooking classes recently.

They both love to cook, but since Lou often stays late to conduct credit or budgeting classes, Fred has dinner ready when she gets home.

Lou says that at present, only 30 percent of her workload is with first-time homeowners. The rest of her time is spent on foreclosure prevention.

"The biggest problem I'm seeing is that people pay their credit cards and don't pay the mortgage," Lou says. "Forget the credit cards!"

Freelance writer Susan Shinn lives in Salisbury.