CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, or NACA, promises to help struggling homeowners save their houses from foreclosure. But are those promises kept?
This weekend NACA will stage one of the organization's Save the Dream events in Charlotte. At a similar event in Columbia, S.C., earlier this year, 30,000 people showed up looking for assistance.
"We're the one shining light in the country when it comes to foreclosure prevention and restructuring mortgages to make them affordable," said NACA CEO Bruce Marks at a news conference to announce the Charlotte event.
But the president of the Better Business Bureaus in Charlotte, Tom Bartholomy, said that is a bit overstated.
"There's nothing that they do that is more special than any other mortgage broker or lender will do for you," Bartholomy said.
In Charlotte, the BBB has logged 5 complaints against NACA. Nationally, there have been 63 complaints.
"At the end of it all, it comes down to that what they promised going in, they weren't getting at the end of it all," said Bartholomy.
Because NACA has helped thousands of satisfied homeowners across the country, the number of complaints is relatively small, so the BBB still gives NACA a B+ rating.
Katoma Cardwell was a NACA employee until he turned up at the news conference Tuesday afternoon. He admits he is in a pay dispute with the organization but also wanted to question CEO Marks about his claims.
"He is trying to distort what type of success NACA is currently able to provide for their members," Cardwell said.
Security guards barred Cardwell from going inside, telling him he had been fired.
A NACA executive who came outside told Cardwell, "Obviously you are attacking the organization so you can go through human resources to discuss anything further."
NewsChannel 36 questioned Marks about Cardwell's claims. Marks said, "There are some people that want to make a name for themselves by being on the media but we are focused on getting the job done."
