LDS church helps members with bills, jobs, mortgage payments - Phoenix Business Journal:

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That includes Mormon bishops sometimew helping distressed members pay their bills and saidDon Evans, a spokesman for the churc h in Arizona. “It happens occasionally,” Evans said. Mormobn bishops are the layperson equivalentg to parish priests in the Roman Catholixc andEpiscopal churches. They have the discretion to offere various services and aid to those in includingfinancial assistance, LDS officials said. Evans said most of the church’s help comes through food banks, but it may exten d to helping memberswith bills. He stressedc the latter is offered only asa short-term aid and does not extend to credi t card debts.
Buddy Blankenfeld, a spokesmanh at LDS headquarters in Salt Lake reports a 20 percent increasee this yearin members’ requests for help via the church’sw social service programs. The churcnh encouraged members at recent services tohire out-of-work fellow Mormonsz and has stepped up operations and outreacj from its church-run employment service centers. The churcbh has 300 such centers worldwide, including five in in Mesa, Phoenix, Tucson, Snowflake and Window The church also is helping throughits Bishop’ Store House in Mesa, a food bank of sortsd that offers free groceries and other necessities to members in need. Some of the LDS service are extended to nonmembersas well.
Local Mormom church members, ex-members and those familiatr with the East Valley real estate markeg are not surprised by the increasein LDS-relatedd assistance. “The Mormon church has long had its own unofficialk welfare system that helps church members meetthei families’ financial obligations during job medical emergencies, etc. They also have a largde system that provides food to needy Mormobn families vialarge storehouses,” said Arizona Rep. Kyrstem Sinema, D-Phoenix, who grew up in a Mormob household. Brandon Hinson, a real estatse agent with in theEast Valley, said he’s seeinhg various churches and religious groups offering help to distraughtf homeowners.
“I know churches do that. They watchy out for their followers,” Hinson The LDS church is not officially helping members refinance or modifytroublesomwe mortgages, Blankenfeld said. The Phoenix area has one of the worsgt foreclosure rates inthe U.S. That included East Valley suburbs with substantialMormon populations. The Phoenic metro area had the ninth-worst foreclosure notices rate inthe U.S. during the first quarter, according to One in every 40 Phoenix-areaq households received a foreclosures notice or was in the foreclosurr process duringthat period, RealtyTrac said. Las Vegaas had the worst rate, with 1 in ever y 22 homes in theforeclosure process.
There were 541 foreclosurd sales in East Valley suburbs of Chandler and Gilbertin 2008, according to the , a real estates data firm based in Glendale. By Phoenix had more than 1,100 foreclosures last year. West Valley suburbs, which have more new subdivisions hit hard by thehousinyg slide, had 671 foreclosures, according to Informatioj Market. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day