The first time I ever heard of Acorn was during the presidential campaign when opponents of Obama were telling everyone who would read or listen about his ties to this allegedly corrupt group. There were allegations of ballot box stuffing, filling out false voter registrations, and more.

The second time I sort of paid attention to them was when they started backing homeowners and telling them not to leave their homes even though they had been foreclosed on.

Then the last time I heard of them was when I was taking a class for Realtors on all the new financing programs available for buyers, a few months ago. I remember in the midst of all the places for buyers to get assistance, when the narrator of the class mentioned Acorn, the Realtor next to me and I just looked at each other and said “Acorn?” in unison.

Personally I have no qualms of getting in bed with the Mafia or anyone else that could have saved my home, but when I called Acorn at our local office I couldn’t even get a call back. They give an address here in San Jose, but I could never get anyone to answer their phones, why would I go to their office?

Supposedly anyone who’s anyone basically knew what this group was. Long before these videos showed up, Congress was worried about how to structure a bill for housing funds so that it couldn’t be used by Acorn for the political agenda.

Some are saying these videos were done unfairly.  Acorn employees were tricked, set up, filmed under false pretenses. As far as I am concerned, it seems if you’re not doing anything wrong, it doesn’t matter when anyone films you or your organization. If these guys are operating by the book, there would be no sordid story to tell.

Acorn offers free homebuyer counseling, helps homeowners with loan modifications, and more. For these supposed charitable efforts, they have received $36 million in federal money from HUD alone — your taxpayer dollars — since 2006. What I’m curious about is since we’re in one of the worst foreclosure markets in history, why do they only boast helping 9000 (give or take a few) homeowners stay in their homes? Supposedly they have helped 50,000 buyers buy new homes since their inception.

Supposedly the RNLA’s expert investigators have uncovered the fact that ACORN is not just one group but a shell for over 200 separate organization names — many residing at the same New Orleans address. Evidently the group has been denied any more federal funds for the census, but no one has said anything about not giving them any more money for their help housing lower income families.

They have quite a long list of banks and lenders they work with to get loans through that normally wouldn’t pass, and for working loan modifications for people in trouble with their mortgages. I know if I was losing my house and they had the answer and the people to help me for free, I must say it may look pretty attractive.

Are you familiar with Acorn? Have they helped you in any way? Feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts with the rest of us.