Lisa S. never dreamed her home would be jeopardized by something as simple as a thumb tack.

The Middle River woman, who asked that her last name be withheld, found her home in danger of foreclosure after her husband stepped on the tack. Because of his diabetes, her husband couldn’t feel the injury that eventually became infected and resulted in the partial loss of the foot. Then he had to quit his full-time dispatching job and go on disability.

“Sixty-percent of a paycheck, I’m sorry, does not meet the bills coming in,” Lisa S. said.

She tried to juggle the bills to make the car payment, keep the phones and electric on and keep her family of five in their modest Middle River row home. Meanwhile, the mortgage fell eight months behind.

A foreclosure counseling program run at Eastside Community Development Corporation and paid for by the county helped Lisa S. stay in her home.

As the current economic downturn deepens, the counseling program is feeling the strain as more people are seeking help.

In response, the County Council approved a $400,000 increase to contracts with the Eastside Development Corporation in Eastpoint and Randallstown-based We are Family, both of which provide foreclosure counseling services to families regardless of income.

The additional money will allow each center to hire more counselors at each site, increasing each site’s case load to 40 to 50 cases per week.

Ron Ruddle, executive director of Eastside Development Corporation, said his office once primarily helped guide families through purchasing a home. They also help buyers locate and apply for state and county grants to buy a home.

“Unfortunately, with the situation we’re going through in this country now, foreclosure is a much bigger part of what we’re seeing,” Ruddle said.

Ruddle, along with one full-time and one part-time counselor, now counsel eight to 15 new clients each week.

The counselors work with clients and banks to find a way to keep families in their homes.

Ruddle’s organization and We are Family in Randallstown are both seeing similar trends, according to Mary Harvey, director of the county’s Office of Community Conservation. Appointments for counseling at both organizations are booked through January, she said.

Ruddle cautioned that while Lisa S.’ situation is not uncommon, “Every situation is an individual situation, and every solution is an individual solution.”

The group negotiated a new mortgage agreement that allowed Lisa S. to remain in her home and add the missed payments on to the end of her mortgage.

“If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have been able to do it,” Lisa S. said. “I don’t think the mortgage company would listen to me like they listened (to the counselor).”

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