STOCKTON – JPMorgan Chase, which merged last fall with Washington Mutual, is gearing up to launch a loan modification center in downtown Stockton today.

The center, one of nine such offices opening in California to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure, is designed to negotiate loan modifications with customers of Chase, Washington Mutual and EMC – a Chase subsidiary.

Community leaders at an open house for the loan center Thursday called the first “face-to-face” center a needed innovation for this part of the Valley, hard hit by foreclosures.

San Joaquin County Supervisor Carlos Villapudua said he was excited to see the loan center opening.

The community has been looking for answers to foreclosure problems for a while, he said. If you don’t have answers, you at least want to offer hope, he said.

“Hope is here,” Villapudua said.

Stockton City Councilman Elbert Holman Jr. said the openings of such foreclosure centers where homeowners can talk to bank representatives face to face make Chase a leader in the banking industry. “It really renders hope to our people.”

Carol Ornelas, CEO of Visionary Home Builders, which provides free counseling for families struggling against foreclosure, said the Chase center will offer a welcome alternative to trying to negotiate loan modifications in person instead of via phone, fax or mail.

“We don’t have that with anybody else right now,” she said. “We hope some of the others can follow suit on this.”

Much of WaMu’s presence in the downtown building – a landmark in downtown Stockton – has shriveled greatly in the past few years because of layoffs at Washington Mutual and then Chase.

The new loan center will occupy a ground-floor section of offices formerly used by human resources staffers. Chase is recommending that homeowners make appointments to talk with one of the seven counselors at the Stockton center.

Earlier this week, a loan center in Oakland drew more than 100 homeowners on the first day trying to get loan modification help.

The loan center is for homeowners who are at least 30 days delinquent in their monthly mortgage payments. Those who aren’t yet delinquent but expect to be can get help via a toll-free phone call.

An initial interview with homeowners takes about an hour. The counselors collect the financial information and pass it on to others within Chase who will evaluate the loan. But the bank is promising that homeowners will be told within 30 days whether a loan can be modified enough to make it affordable.

Chase spokesman Gary Kishner said the goal is to find a loan modification that will successfully keep a homeowner in the home long term instead of simply delaying foreclosure.

“We don’t want that person to be in the same situation six months from now,” he said.

Cynthia Thompson, Western regional manager for Chase Homeowners Centers, said modifications can involve stretching a loan over 40 years or reducing the interest rate.

Chase already has 2,500 people nationwide involved in loan modification counseling, said Diana Nimmo, manager of the Stockton loan center, which will serve customers from San Joaquin County to as far south as Fresno.

Twenty-two such centers opened nationwide this month will add 300 more counselors to that effort, she said.

“Foreclosure is a no-win situation for customers, and it’s a no-win situation for Chase as well,” she said.

Other California centers are in Sacramento, Oakland, Santa Clara, Glendale, Santa Ana, Rancho Cucamunga, Downey and La Mesa/San Diego.

Contact reporter Bruce Spence at (209) 943-8581 or bspence@recordnet.com