PAWTUCKET — The Planning Department is putting together a program that officials hope will help stem the wave of foreclosures sweeping the city as a result of the subprime lending debacle.

A grant of $20,000 is being provided to the Blackstone Valley Community Action Program, so that BVCAP can hire someone to assist the staff member who counsels first-time homebuyers on how to buy houses and keep up with the payments on their loans.

Barney S. Heath, assistant Planning Department director, said the BVCAP program is intended to supplement the state’s efforts, through Rhode Island Housing, to provide counseling to financially distressed homeowners.

Heath said the plan is for BVCAP to have its beefed-up homebuyer counseling program up and running in a week.

City officials said there is no doubt the foreclosure situation is worsening, although Heath stopped short of calling it a crisis.

Deputy City Clerk Michelle Hardy said there have been 108 foreclosures in the city in the first 3 1/2 months of this year, up from 172 in all of last year.

The year before that, there were 65 foreclosures, according to the city clerk’s office. In 2005, before the subprime lending crisis, there were just 17.

In addition to the toll it has taken in human misery, the subprime lending crisis is cutting into city finances.

According to City Tax Collector Cheryl L. DiGiuseppe, approximately 300 property owners failed to make their first-quarter tax payments –– many no doubt because their properties had been foreclosed, she said.

As a result, city taxes are more than $652,000 in arrears, DiGiuseppe said, although she said she is confident the back taxes will be paid before the city conducts its next tax sale.

The city’s next tax sale has been scheduled for May 29.

Because many mortgage lenders delay filing a deed indicating that they have taken possession of a foreclosed property, DiGiuseppe said it is often difficult for the city to take the first step in collecting unpaid property taxes: Finding out who the owner is.

To help solve the problem, DiGiuseppe and other municipal tax collectors are seeking passage of a law requiring banks and other lenders to file a deed and pay all back taxes within 30 days of a property being foreclosed.

A bill containing those requirements was submitted in the Rhode Island House in mid-January by three state representatives from Pawtucket — Peter F. Kilmartin, Elaine A. Coderre and William San Bento Jr .— and two from East Providence — Henry C. Rose and Elizabeth M. Dennigan.

The bill was held for further study after a committee conducted a hearing on Feb. 13.

jcastell@projo.com