2020 brings the third year for the Hopeful Home Fund, an initiative started by Berrien County Treasurer Bret Witkowski to collect donations for helping homeowners on the verge of foreclosure due to personal hardship. Witkowski says a success story out of the program from this year is that of the McNees family of Benton Harbor. Jeremy McNees tells WSJM News he and his wife, who is a double leg amputee due to diabetes, were in danger of losing their home when they went to the county.
“We had gone into see the county board about seeing some tax relief in order to catch up because it seemed like all of our payments were basically going toward penalties on the previous amount,” McNees said.
McNees says Witkowski heard about them and pointed them toward the Hopeful Home Fund.
“From there, we’ve gone through our tax returns and paid off some of the previous balance. They are going to be taking care of one of the years, which will basically be getting us caught back up.”
McNees says his wife is learning to balance herself on new prosthetics, while he looks for higher-paying work. In the meantime, the couple is no longer in danger of losing their home. McNees advises anyone who is struggling with property taxes to reach out to the county. The United Way of Southwest Michigan helps run the Hopeful Home Fund, and donations can be made to the fund via the organization.
