With every muscle tensed, Bill Lichtenstein looked like he was trying very hard to imagine he was anywhere else – a dentist’s office even – while also staying focused on what he was here to do. This was his last chance to save his home. 

Lichtenstein and thousands of others flooded the Los Angeles Sports Arena this past week to attend a convention, dubbed the ‘Save the Dream Tour,’ that orchestrates a meeting between troubled homeowners and their lenders to negotiate a solution other than foreclosure. The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, a non-profit that’s been around since the 1980s, is leading the nation-wide tour.

Resolve - it’s what homeowners who were able to lower their payments, sometimes by as much as $1,000 a month, kept emphasizing to the crowd. NACA representatives would usher selected victors up to a large podium in the middle of the buzzing arena where they’d share a few words of their story. ‘Don’t give up,’ they’d say. ‘Just keep calling and calling.’ They weren’t talking about spending a few months pestering their lender, they were talking about years of waiting, of limbo, while interest payments sunk them deeper in debt.

Bald, with glasses, and a grey beard, Lichtenstein had heard about the convention from a real estate agent. He was sitting on a folding chair in a section demarcated by a hand-written sign that read “self-employed” in all capital letters. This is a tricky section to be sitting in. His lender had not been understanding when it came to his new work scenario. Lichtenstein had worked in sales for manufacturers, but since they’d gone overseas, he was left trying to cobble together business on his own, and every month’s pay was different.

“After losing the job…[I] hung on for a year and a half and then just deteriorated everything I owned before that, my savings and everything and now I’m in dire straits– I’m just trying to save it…this is it,” he said.

To get to that sought after face-to-face with the lender, banks like Wells Fargo and Bank of America, there are heaps of papers and lines to move through first. Lichtenstein had made it onto the floor of the hulking sports arena, and that was an accomplishment. He felt that at least he could now make contact.

“That’s what’s been the problem all along, trying to get their attention.”

He’d been calling for a long time, about 11 months, and now he was in foreclosure.

“The biggest frustration is every time you call it’s a different person and like a low-level customer service person that really has no authority. They look at a few things on your statements and say, especially because I’m self employed, they say you don’t qualify, you’re done,” he recounted.

NACA claims the banks make modifications on the spot for 30 to 50 percent of attendees. Lichtenstein needed to lower his interest rate in order to hold onto his house.

For his neighbors, though, it wasn’t so bad. “Everybody’s struggling. But they’re not boarding up every house on the block or anything...yet. I hope it never happens.”

Maybe it was the realization that not all of his neighbors were struggling, and that he was actually alone in his fight, or maybe it was the catch in his throat had been building for a while - but all of a sudden, the tears started to come. Bill Lichtenstein had lost the battle for composure.

Upstairs, Michael Vu and his father Khoi were just at the beginning of what promised to be a long, emotional day. The side entrance of the arena had been made into a makeshift classroom with long, blue curtains, and the Vus sat at the back. They were attending a session to orient newcomers to the step-by-step process (groups are herded from one stage to the next), and to motivate them to stick with the process. Not everyone will leave the arena with a new plan in hand, so for NACA, it’s important to get people thinking long-term and to lift their spirits.

Michael Vu had on a grey hooded sweatshirt. The beginnings of a beard crept down the side of his face and he wore his thick hair in a shaggy style that peeked over his ears. He would be by his dad’s side the entire day, translating for him. Michael knew how they had gotten into this situation – they were about three months behind on their mortgage and starting the foreclosure process – but he didn’t have a technical grasp of the options.

“We tried talking to Bank of America and it’s the runaround. So hopefully this will do something better…just because of the connection. Face-to-face is always better than mailing and emailing back-and-forth,” Michael reasoned.

“It’s a last resort,” he admitted, before a large voice began booming with instructions.

There’s a very distinct line across the floor of the arena that homeowners cross after they’ve filled out budget sheets and talked with NACA counselors. Finally, it’s time to talk to the banks.

Angeanette Dowles likes her job. She speaks in a clear, energetic voice at a rapid pace, with breaks for wide smiles. She’s the vice president of Bank of America’s Home Retention Division.

“Oh my goodness, the good thing about this job is that it is the coolest thing in the world because we have more good stories than bad stories because the ultimate end result is that the customer actually has an affordable payment and they’re able to stay in their home.”

She had 150 people with her, whom she calls “counselor-negotiators,” and their job is tough. They’re the intermediaries between Bank of America’s directives from above and the hopeful, frustrated person sitting in front of them.

Dowles’ answer to the allegations of the wearisome runaround homeowners face when working with Bank of America: “It’s always better to talk face-to-face with the person that you’re talking to, rather than over the phone. And it’s also good because when they come through the NACA counseling, they’re coming through with completed packages, as opposed to on the phone where we tell them everything that they need to fax in – and sometimes it takes the customers a couple of days to get back to us with that information. And it will be piecemeal, and they’ll fax a little bit this day, maybe another document the next day and that can be time consuming, whereas here they have all of the information that’s uploaded to us on the spot.”

This vision of a blameless Bank of America – one that wanted to create as many solutions as possible but had to cope with disorganized, confused customers – didn’t square with the countless stories of persistent homeowners, nor with the need for a national tour that stopped in every major city (see the list below) run by a non-profit.

And yet Dowles emphasized that foreclosure is a losing proposition for the bank. “When we foreclose on a property, you now have a foreclosure in your area, a potential for boarded up properties in your community, eyesores in your community; this poor family is out of a home, no cash flowing to the investor, everybody loses,” she said.

Bruce Marks, the founder and CEO of NACA put the situation in simple terms: “We do the job for the banks. We do the operations better than the banks do it themselves and we get the job done.”

Marks wasn’t happy with Obama’s foreclosure policies. He believes Obama isn’t holding the banks accountable. “He pleads, begs and bribes them, but it doesn’t work and he doesn’t step in to make it work, ” said Marks.

Oregon Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley is also calling on Obama to refocus on the foreclosure crisis. Right now, and for the past 20 months, there are still 300,000 new foreclosure filings a month—the situation doesn’t seem to be improving. But Obama did not mention housing in his State of the Union address.

The Home Affordable Modification Program was launched in 2009 to prevent 3 to 4 million homes from foreclosure – thus far only 600,000 have been rescued. And while $50 billion was pledged, only a quarter will be utilized, reports Merkley.

Among Merkley’s suggestions is one that speaks to the experience of the thousands of Los Angeles ‘Save the Dream’ attendees and the hundreds of thousands who’ve attended one of the 25 stops during NACA’s two and a half years of touring. Merkley wants to “provide homeowners with a single point of access when they seek a loan modification.”

On each of the 11 days NACA stakes out the arena, around 600 volunteers show up, don bright yellow t-shirts, stand for hours, shuffle people from bleachers to folding chairs, sometimes running from one side of the arena to another or translating complex mortgage structures into English. Maybe they were once short a loan payment themselves, or they know someone who was, or maybe they just care.

Marks said he has more volunteers than jobs to give them. “Our goal is…to put ourselves out of business,” said Marks. But to look at the jammed parking lot or the entryway lines or the state of this union, that goal seems far off.