Schneiderman Announces $300K Awarded for Foreclosure - WKBW
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
“Funding legal services is essential to bringing relief for the homeowners and .... Bronx Legal Services. $100000. Bronx ...
www.wkbw.com/.../Schneiderman-Announces-300K-Awarded...
Friday, 23 March 2012
March 23, 2012, Bronx, NY —Today, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and State Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson joined other officials and community leaders to announce a major new development which will be the new home of Legal Services NYC-Bronx. Legal Services NYC-Bronx will soon open their new ADA-accessible home at the Hub on E.149th and Brook Avenue. The new office will be a dignified community space and safe-haven where all clients can access free civil legal services in confidence and comfort. The facility includes a new green space and provides the accessibility and service capacity that clients deserve. (Photo: Borough President Diaz and Senator Hassell-Thompson with Legal Services NYC-Bronx staff)
LS NYC-Bronx Foreclosure Funding Fight Continues...
WNYT-Albany
Tuesday, January 31 2012
It was a rally to press Governor Andrew Cuomo to restore 25-million-dollars, cut from his proposed budget; money that funds counselors and legal experts across the state, who work to keep homeowners from defaulting or losing their homes to foreclosure. http://wnyt.com/article/stories/S2476847.shtml?cat=300
Bronx County Courthouse center offers help in fight vs. foreclosures
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Friday, June 03, 2011
A new counseling center opening today in the Bronx County Courthouse will help borough homeowners fend off foreclosures.
Staffed by expert attorneys from the Legal Aid Society, Bronx Legal Services and other groups, the center will advise homeowners on mortgage matters for free from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Few Bronxites with homes in foreclosure are prepared to meet their bank in court, said state Senator Jeff Klein (D-Bronx/Westchester), who secured $175,000 for the program."All too often, homeowners at risk of foreclosure don't know their rights," Klein said.
Many homeowners are still falling prey to loan modification scam artists who charge big bucks and do nothing, added Justin Haines of Bronx Legal Services.
Borrowing Trouble
Some lenders are modifying mortgages only after homeowners waive their right to sue.
By Paul Kiel Updated Monday, May 9, 2011, at 6:44 AM ET
A few months ago, Bank of America offered Sergio Cortez of Staten Island, N.Y., the help he desperately needed to stay in his home: a break on his mortgage. Like millions of others, he was facing foreclosure. But there was a catch buried in the fine print. Cortez had to waive any possibility of ever suing the bank for anything relating to the loan.
Cortez isn't alone. While regulators have banned the practice, some banks and others who handle mortgages have still been forcing homeowners into a corner: You want a chance at saving your home? Then you'll have to waive your rights.
"It's just unfair," said Jane Azia, director of consumer protection for the New York State Banking Department. "It puts borrowers in a very vulnerable situation."
Pro Publica identified eight banks and other mortgage servicers who offer help that limits homeowners' ability to sue or fight foreclosure. When contacted, they offered a variety of responses. Some said the inclusion of the waivers had been a mistake and would stop. Some argued that language that seemed to waive the homeowner's rights didn't actually do so. One argued that a loophole in a rule barring the practice meant their inclusion in certain agreements was proper...more
Rally to save forclosure prevention advocates
By Patrick Rocchio
Bronx Times-Reporter
Posted: 1:50 PM, April 1, 2011
Elected officials are calling on the state to continue funding the free attorneys who help homeowners in trouble with their mortgages, negotiate with creditors.
Members of Legal Services NYC, along with Senator Jeff Klein, Senator Gustavo Rivera, Assemblyman Michael Benedetto, and a hundred legal aids and people who have been helped by them in mortgage modifications rallied on the steps of the Bronx County Courthouse on Friday, March 18 to call for the restoration of $15 million in state funding for the Foreclosure Prevention Program.
The Foreclosure Prevention Program was cut in preliminary 2011-12 proposed state budgets, possibly spelling the end of the program and leading to a rise in the number of foreclosures as homeowners who have run into trouble will be unable to renegotiate with their mortgage holders. Funding for the program provided by about 120 different agencies is scheduled to run out on December 31.
“More than a year ago, we fought for laws that would make settlement conferences available for all homeowners facing foreclosure, so that New Yorkers would be able to sit down with their bank and find a way to stay in their home,” Klein said.
“Legal assistance programs and foreclosure counseling programs are a key component to this legislation, and it is imperative that we include funding in this year’s budget to make programs like these survive.”
There are currently about 3,447 mortgage loans in foreclosure in the Bronx, and the borough ranks second in the state in loans that are in pre-foreclosure, according to Klein’s office. The group is seeking to get funding for the legal program back into Governor Andrew Cuomo’s executive budget for 2012.
The elected officials were calling on the governor to restore the funding after their conferences could not do so in their own budget recommendations, as a result of the financial troubles in the state.
“We know that the foreclosure crisis is not over because our neighbors, family, and friends are feeling squeezed and struggle with issues of foreclosure every day in the Bronx,” Rivera stated. “But if that were not enough, experts are telling us that we are only a third of the way through the foreclosure crises. It would be irresponsible to cut funding for successful foreclosure prevention to prevent the interruption of these critical services throughout our state.”
Vacant properties are not good for stable home owning communities, often dragging entire neighborhoods downhill, and keeping as many taxpaying citizens in their homes as possible in order to prevent stagnation is a smart move, Assemblyman Benedetto said.
Attorneys who advocate for clients who may face foreclosure deal directly with loan service providers, who can often reap substantial fees if a loan goes into foreclosure, attorneys at the rally said.
The reforms enacted by the state legislature over the past few years, such as 90-day notices and settlement conferences, would be rendered meaningless if funding was cut so severely that homeowners facing foreclosure do not have access to attorneys, said Justin Haines, director of the foreclosure prevention unit for Bronx Legal Services NYC.
At the rally was Jacob Issac of 537 Baretto Street in Hunts Point, who was able to negotiate a nearly 50% percent reduction in a $3,000 per month mortgage payment to stay in his house with his two young children.
“They got the modification for myself and my kids, and without it, we may have been homeless,” Issac said.
Bronx Homeowners Seek Assistance to Stay Put
Homeowners waited to meet with HUD-certified housing counselors and attorneys from Bronx Legal Services.
Story by Debralee Santos and Toni-Ann Martin
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
On Sat., March 12th, hundreds of Bronx homeowners attended the Rise Up and Stay Put Home Rescue Fair at Hostos Community College to take advantage of free foreclosure assistance services.
The event was organized by the Center for New York City Neighborhoods (CNYCN), and was one of the 40 rescue fairs in 27 different communities nationwide, as hosted by the the Alliance for Stabilizing our Communities (ASC)...more
Nelson Mar Returns to "Bronx Legal with David Lesch
On April 20th, 2010, Nelson Mar, Senior Staff Attorney and Education Law Specialist at Legal Services NYC–Bronx, was a guest on BronxNet’s “Bronx Legal with David Lesch” discussing school bullying. An archive of the program is available on Bronx Legal's website.
Nelson previously appeared on August 25th, 2009, discussing school disciplinary issues, including what steps New York City public school parents should take if they believe their child has experienced unlawful disciplinary actions.
