When Shane Lightle realized people were traveling 30 miles to his foreclosure assistance office in Eaton for help, he knew there was a serious problem.

The southern Ohio manager for the nonprofit group Empowering and Strengthening Ohio’s People, or ESOP, said people as far as Middletown and Cincinnati have been calling and visiting their office in Preble County looking for foreclosure help. The demand has prompted the agency to open a new office in Butler County, likely in Middletown or Monroe.

“We started getting requests from the Dayton-Cincinnati corridor and it’s difficult for people to travel that far,” Lightle said. “When we see a lot of need coming from a specific area like that, we will open another office.”

The local foreclosure crisis is far from over, with the Butler County Sheriff’s Office reporting filings are spiking past last year’s figures. And while some are being pulled prior to the foreclosure auction, officials said there is no way to tell how many are ending up back in the system later.

In the county, 249 foreclosure filings were received and 103 were upheld and sold at auction in November 2009 compared with 177 properties received and 79 sold for the same month last year, according to the sheriff’s office.

ESOP, which has been at the forefront of the foreclosure crisis since it was founded in Cleveland in 1993, serves as a lifeline for homeowners, offering foreclosure counseling services and loan modifications at no cost. Funded by U.S. Housing and Urban Development and the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, it is also one of the only agencies that offers Level 3 assistance, meaning it compiles loan modification information, submits it to the lender and represents the homeowner in the proceedings, Lightle said.

While their are other agencies in the region that offer nonprofit assistance, Lightle said “every agency could use 10 more staff people,” and that the unemployment situation has left plenty of work to go around.

“These are very much regular folks. These are people you and I went to high school and college with and they are responsible with money, it is just tough times right now and they need help,” he said.

The new ESOP office should be selected and open in January. For more information, call (877) 731-3767.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2843 or jheffner@coxohio.com.