Got a mortgage held by mortgage-financing giant Fannie Mae? If you're trying to get help with it and you're not having any luck by phone, you now have a face-to-face option.

Fannie Mae last week opened a "Mortgage Help Center" in Greenbelt that's targeted at the Baltimore-Washington area. It's the 12th such center in the country, the company says.

Spokesman Andrew Wilson said Fannie Mae has worked with about 9,000 homeowners in the 11 that have already been operating, and 60 percent "have been able to stay in their home."

"Many of the others can achieve what we call a graceful exit, where they avoid foreclosure through a short sale or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure," he wrote in an email.

To make an appointment at the Greenbelt center, call 866-442-9376, Wilson said. (You can check here to see if Fannie Mae owns your loan. But the company says anyone can call, and staffers will send homeowners without Fannie Mae mortgages to HUD-approved counseling agencies.)

Some mortgage servicers have been opening centers or holding convention-center-type events. If you've been to anything like this, weigh in -- did it work for you?

In other mortgage financing news, Fannie Mae just asked for $7.8 billion more from taxpayers to cover losses, the head of the agency that oversees Fannie and Freddie Mac (both in government conservatorship) is defending the bonuses paid to execs last year and Ginnie Mae -- the lesser-known mortgage-bond issuer -- is now bigger than Freddie.