HILO -- The Big Island has one of the state's highest foreclosure rates, but some Hawaii county homeowners are now being given one more chance to save either their home, their savings or their credit rating.

Sherrin Snook takes pride in her home in the Hawaiian Paradise Park subdivision near Keaau, south of Hilo, Hawaii. But even as she maintains the property, she fears the worst. “The next three months I'll be in foreclosure,” She said.

Snook has been falling behind on various payments since separating from her husband. She's stayed current on her mortgage, however, hoping the bank will renegotiate.

“My mortgage payment is so high I have tried since last year talking to them lower it and they won't,” Snook said.

If the bank takes her to court for foreclosure, a test program operating only in the Big Island’s 3rd Circuit Court may help. Judges there are now giving foreclosed owner-occupants notice that they have a chance for mediation, to bring the bank to the negotiating table.

Judges Ronald Ibarra of Kona and Greg Nakamura have had mediators specially trained to handle the negotiations. “We'll do our best to make sure that both sides fully participate in the mediation,” Nakamura said.

The Big Island was chosen because its foreclosure rate is higher than other counties.

Because it involves only foreclosures overseen by the courts it is not clear how many homeowners will benefit from the program. Of the 66 foreclosures filed since the program began in only nine homeowners have applied and no mediations have begun.

Legal Aid attorney Jeff Kent helped design the program. He says it’s not clear how well the program will work here. “We’ll have to wait and see,” he said. “Medication only works if both parties come to the table really willing to work it out. That's the hope that's the plan,” he said.

Kent says similar programs have worked in other states. He says the most important feature is forcing banks to at least listen and it may bring benefits even if the house is still lost. “Maybe its buying the homeowner more time to leave with some amount of dignity and maybe there was just a miscommunication before,” Kent said.

Sherrin Snook says she knows of others like her, the kind of people the program means to help; owner occupants, very willing to sacrifice to save their homes.

“I know that I won't be able to make the payment, but I am able to make a payment that is satisfactory to both the parties so that no-one loses. I don't lose in the foreclosure and the bank doesn't lose in the foreclosure,” Snook said.