CHICAGO | Community organizers, along with local and state officials, called this week for mandatory meetings between homeowners in foreclosure and their lenders to try to reach agreement on modifying mortgages.

Action Now, a group with about 4,000 members in the Chicago area, is using a program in Philadelphia as a model for what they want to see in Cook County. The Philadelphia program was created by city government and the courts in June. Within its first three months in effect, 80 percent of the loans reviewed were modified.

"One of the biggest problems the lenders are having is they can't get people to answer them," said Denise Dixon, executive director of Action Now. "They call them, people don't answer the phone; they send them letters, people don't answer the letters. We know that it works if people get to the table, but they're not getting to the table."

The Philadelphia plan deals with cases at all stages in the foreclosure process, from homes about to be sold at sheriff's auctions to new filings, Cook County Clerk of Courts Dorothy Brown said. It requires a conference between the homeowners and the lenders and allows the case to move forward if the loan cannot be modified.

Dixon said Action Now wants Cook County courts to implement the program, and Brown said she was joining with the group to urge the county courts to support a version of the Philadelphia's system.

The Philadelphia program has cost the city $2 million. Brown said a local version will cost much more because of the greater volume of foreclosure filings here.

A similar program in Connecticut has cost the state $2.5 million.

"We need to understand that those cities stepped up to the plate and brought forth money." Brown said. "We are all in a budget crisis, but we need to dig deep and come up with the funding necessary for this kind of program."

Foreclosure filings in Cook County have increased from about 8,000 in 1996 to an expected total of about 44,000 this year, Brown said.

Illinois Rep. Marlow H. Colvin, D-Chicago, chair of the consumer protection committee, said he would introduce legislation modeled on the Philadelphia program in January.

"Many of the banks that hold these mortgages hire third party law firms who have no interest in working with anybody," said Colvin. "They are working on an hourly basis to try to dissolve these mortgages. But as it relates to protecting the consumer, the goal is to keep people in their homes. That's the purpose of the Philadelphia program."

Brown said there are already efforts at mediation in local courts, as well as a foreclosure advice desk staffed by volunteer lawyers to help homeowners.