Meet Ed Hall, pending novelist, StoryCorps interviewer, and now desperate homeowner. My 15-year mortgage matures in early April, at which time I will owe $20,500 in a lump sum. I expected refinancing might prove challenging; I had not expected, despite my good credit and substantial equity, that I would be compelled to leap through costly hoops and embrace questionable ethics to keep my home. I live in a rapidly gentrifying area and suspect my challenges are directly related to dubious lenders looking to profit off long-time residents of this historically black neighborhood.

When I moved into this house, I wanted to write books, do arts journalism, and grow old here. Any help you could offer to make that happen would not mean just keeping my home; it would mean the world to me.

Please help.