While applying for the job, a memory of my own childhood re-surfaced. During the recession, around 2007-8, one early morning, I was getting ready for grade school. I was shivering, and brushing my teeth with cold water. For a few months, we did not have heat or hot water. I would boil pots on the stove to take baths in the mornings, and double up on socks at night. This was life.

Before Stephanie Kilpatrick became a staff attorney at the Clinic, she worked in many different fields, including behind the scenes in broadcasting, as the frontwoman of a big band, and in various church leadership positions. Her legal career has likewise taken many twists and turns. Most recently, after 18 years as a real estate attorney, she felt the Lord pulling her in a new direction. She wanted to use her legal skills to serve the Lord.

Oftentimes, the Clinic is able to help a client navigate the situation with a lender to get a modification or some other kind of workout to lower their mortgage payment. Additionally, depending on the hardships they have experienced, homeowners may be eligible for a reinstatement program called the Indiana Hardest Hit Fund. For Michael, discovering the best kind of workout for his clients is rewarding. “I enjoy collaborating with homeowners to bring about a lasting and sustainable change in what is often the single largest expense of a household,” he says. 

By the time Barbara Turner* contacted our Housing Department for assistance, she was over $10,000 behind on her mortgage payments. For the past year, she had endured many hardships that made her unable to afford her home, including domestic violence at the hands of her spouse. A stay-at-home mom to her three children, Barbara was determined to keep her family safe. And so she divorced her abusive husband and began to seek full-time employment. Paralegal Molly Howes Jefford says of this, “The loss of income from her divorce is in part why she struggled with maintaining her mortgage payments.”

Recognizing God’s provision is often pivotal to the work that Michael does—most especially when that work is messy. “[At times, I find myself] working with some pretty broken situations and still not being able to fix them,” he says. On occasion, there are no good options for our clients; a foreclosure cannot be prevented and Michael finds himself in the position of having to deliver bad news. “I don’t like it when things don’t work,” he says. “My hope is that we can offer assistance of some sort often, yet it sometimes doesn’t take the shape that people are hoping for.” But even when things don’t work precisely as his clients would like, Michael is there to walk through the process alongside them.