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Prince George's County residents and officials implored a congressional review panel for help Friday in alleviating the local home foreclosure crisis, using the county – which is in federal lawmakers' backyards and leads the state in foreclosures – as a face of the nation's economic woes.

The Congressional Oversight Panel hearing held at Prince George's Community College in Largo came days before the expected launch next week of President Obama's $75 billion foreclosure prevention legislation, designed to cut homeowners with unaffordable mortgages and other borrowers a break by lowering monthly payments.

Councilman Samuel Dean (D-Dist. 6) of Mitchellville addressed the four-person panel, which was created to monitor spending in the widely criticized banking industry bailout, saying the county is "ground zero" for home foreclosures.

Dean said the hearing was a great first step in mitigating the home foreclosure crisis but said he was hopeful "people won't [just] feel warm and fuzzy" but that the testimony will eventually lead to legislation.

Friday's hearing was the second field hearing held by the panel, following the first hearing in December in Nevada, the state with the highest foreclosure rate in the nation.

Panel Chairwoman Elizabeth Warren acknowledged the importance of personal stories in highlighting the growing problem.

"We need to see faces and we need to hear voices – we must fight back," Warren said. "Please don't regard this job as finished. Continue to show up and reach out. We're moving as fast as we can."

Tracy and Sheldon Robison of Hyattsville, among several Prince George's homeowners who testified, told the panel their home had been in foreclosure and, desperate to climb out of their sinking finances, the couple was duped by fraudulent mortgage lenders.

Tracy Robison, 45, said her story is only one of thousands in Maryland that is an example of desperate people making bad decisions by trusting fraudulent companies.

"There needs to be legislation to put these companies out of business," she said. "They're worse than predatory lenders – they're scam artists that need to be shut down."

Warren said the panel will submit a report March 6 to Congress presenting findings from the two hearings.

U.S. Rep. Donna F. Edwards (D-Dist. 4) told the panel she supports the housing rescue plan.

"We need to tackle this problem with multiple prongs," she said. "There isn't one fix."

Lisa McDougal, co-chair for the coalition for homeownership preservation in Prince George's County and the executive director of Sowing Empowerment and Economic Development, said SEED helps worried homeowners and residents facing a pile of unopened letters.

McDougal said in the past two years, the number of homeowners who have sought help from the organization has nearly doubled.

The $75 billion in foreclosure relief, designed to keep 4 million U.S. homeowners from foreclosure, would be funded by the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program financial bailout. The Obama administration detailed an expanded aid plan for the banking industry Wednesday, saying the plan would likely cost more than the $700 billion already approved.

The TARP fund, expected to run out before the end of the year, could potentially be bolstered by an additional $750 billion left as a "placeholder" in the budget blueprint Obama presented Thursday.

Panel member Damon Silvers, associate general counsel of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, asked Thomas Perez, Maryland's secretary of labor, licensing and regulation, if he thought placing a moratorium on foreclosures would help alleviate the housing crisis.

A moratorium would not address the need to modify mortgage plans, Perez said, adding it will only postpone and lengthen the problem.

"We need benchmarks," he said.

E-mail Liz Skalski at eskalski@gazette.net.