doug and mary jeffreys are fighting to keep the home they built from scratch eight years ago. this is the american dream. we worked very hard. and at the end of the day when you good home, you want something nice to go to. reporter: the person leading them through the battle is patrice simms, a foreclosure prevention counselor who works for church s community development corporation. i do have the jeffreys in the room. reporter: today she is on the phone with the jeffreys bank, pushing for a decision oa request to lower their monthly mortgage payments. their current mortgage is about $4,000 a month. basically, we just have to wait a couple days for that appraisal to come in and then i will submit the file. okay. what is your feeling? you know what? i really can t say. we just have to wait and see. reporter: one in ten black
jeffries. they refinanced twice and now they re under water. gone are the parties. the vacations. and the gifts. it s beautiful! reporter: why help doug and mary jefferies? super nice people but in a way, they make enough money, they could just move to another place. you can t assume a person s middle income and has less problems is impacted by those with less problems than a person lower income and has problems. reporter: how come we re seeing people in the middle class african-american now sliding back. you can be middle class by income but not wealth. you re laid off. you have a little wealth, you can maybe get by a year or two. reporter: middle class by income lose your job, a mortgage to pay, a month s worth of savings, you re in trouble. that s the difference. reporter: our report says three out of four black middle
that s not the case with the jeffries. they refinanced twice and now they re under water. gone are the parties. the vacations. and the gifts. it s beautiful! reporter: why help doug and mary jefferies? super nice people but in a way, they make enough money, they could just move to another place. you can t assume a person s middle income and has less problems is impacted by those with less problems than a person lower income and has problems. reporter: how come we re seeing people in the middle class african-american now sliding back. you can be middle class by income but not wealth. you re laid off. you have a little wealth, you can maybe get by a year or two. reporter: middle class by income lose your job, a mortgage to pay, a month s worth of savings, you re in trouble.
families are losing their homes, most because of subprime loans. but that s not the case with the jeffreys. they refinanced twice, and now they re underwater. gone are the parties. the vacations, and the gifts. it s beautiful! why help doug and mary jeffreys? super nice people, but in a way they make enough money. they could just move to another place. you can t assume that a person is middle income and has problems is less impacted by their problems than a person who is lower income that has problems. reporter: how come we re seeing people who are in the middle class who are african-american now sliding back? you can be middle class by income, but not by wealth. so you re laid off. you got a little wealth, you know, you can maybe make it a year or two. reporter: but middle class by income lose your job, you got a mortgage to pay, you ve got about a month s worth of savings. you re in trouble. and that s the difference.
cars and we ll wear designer clothes and we have all of the appearances of doing well but we won t admit that we re broke. being in debt is slavery. when i m paying last month s bills with next month s check, that s slavery. when i m writing a check hoping that it doesn t bounce or when i pull up my credit card praying it s not rejected, i m living in financial bondage. reporter: it s a problem exacerbated in today s economy, the worst since the depression. doug and mary jeffries have refinanced their home twice and are now on the verge of foreclosure. they ve turned to their pastor for help. one day i just broke down. we were at a funeral at the church and then sories pulls up and, you know, what s up, man? how are you doing? i said, pastor, i kaiain t doino