When Kathy Felton bought a duplex 20 years ago, she dreamed it would be a home for life for her and her son. But 20 years later, the bank foreclosed on that dream. And last week, a horse trailer, three sheriff’s cars and a flatbed truck came to carry away her belongings.

The St. Joseph woman got evicted.

“The guy said, ‘We’re taking your stuff. Are you going to cooperate?’” Ms. Felton said. “Am I going to cooperate while you’re taking my stuff?”

Ms. Felton now lives in a motel room that costs $50.75 a day, plus tax, that her son pays for on a credit card with 15 percent interest. Every day, she scribbles her options on notebook paper and every day she marks lines through most of them. Her son remains the one option that’s always left.

“I borrow money from him,” Ms. Felton said. “He gives me money when he can, but it’s pinching him to the end.”

Many people are feeling the pinch of losing their homes to foreclosure. And the stress is increasing.

According to information from the Homeownership Preservation Foundation, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing foreclosure and preserving home ownership, its hot-line service received 13,274 calls from Missouri homeowners in 2007. From January to July 2008, it’s already received 13,825 calls for help. Missouri also ranks as the 16th most counseled state in 2008, according to the organization.

Doug Tschauder, an attorney for Legal Aid of Western Missouri who specializes in foreclosures, said he’s seen a definite increase in people needing help with mortgage problems.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have any hard numbers, but there’s definitely been an increase here in this office, and from everything I can tell, the number of foreclosures in the area is picking up,” he said.

Mr. Tschauder said the increase in foreclosures can be attributed to a number of factors. Those factors include bad loans, health issues, death of a spouse or loss of income. But the overall effect, he said, on the local economy and housing market isn’t nearly as devastating as it is in the larger areas.

“We don’t have nearly the same effect as in California or Florida, where the real-estate market is really overinflated,” he said.

Scott Mears, vice president of the local Association of Realtors, said despite the foreclosure issues, home sales in St. Joseph are stable. And overall, banks are more restrictive in the loan and appraisal process.

“I don’t think we’re in as bad of shape as people hear or read about in the national media,” Mr. Mears said. “If a house is priced right, they move pretty well. There’s buyers out there now ready to buy.”

Marilyn Rajca of Re/Max of St. Joseph is a real-estate agent dealing in foreclosures. She said the number of local foreclosures has increased.

“Foreclosures over the last three years have been pretty steady here, but I’ve seen it pick up in the last month or so,” she said. “We got five pending orders, and they’re coming in pretty heavy now. These bad loans are finally catching up with everybody.”

Elizabeth Phillips said there’s hope for anyone dealing with foreclosure. The certified housing counselor for the Catholic Charities Foreclosure Prevention program said people can receive help through her office or any similar Housing Urban Development certified agency. She said a big misconception is that most people don’t think there’s anything that can be done to stop a foreclosure.

“The key is early intervention,” she said. “If someone knows they have an adjustable rate mortgage and it’s going up, they can call us. We work to change an adjustable rate into a fixed rate for the homeowners before they get in a bind. We’ve been very successful working with lenders in doing that.”

The Catholic Charities Foreclosure Prevention program was able to save Ronald and Charlene Allen’s $90,000 home. The couple could afford the $649-a-month payment with his job as a truck driver and mechanic and her job as a school district worker. But then he broke his back and got behind on his payments. To add insult to injury, another lending organization bought his loan and raised the rates.

“Within five months or more, they notified us and told us we were $5,000 in the hole and it kept on climbing,” Mr. Allen said. “Finally, they set us up on this program where we paid $1,100 a month. No way I could keep that up very long.”

The couple contacted Catholic Charities, which helped them save their home by getting their adjustable rate mortgage changed to a fixed rate. The payments are now at a manageable $875 a month, Mr. Allen said.

“I don’t know where we would have been in another month or two if we hadn’t got something done,” Mr. Allen said.

Alonzo Weston can be reached at alonzow@npgco.com.