Foreclosed Victims Hemmed In Further By Food And Fuel Increase

June 18th, 2008

There are many like 48-year-old Maritza Perez who has fallen behind six months in mortgage repayment because she cannot pay $2,800 because priority has to be given to grocery, gas and medical expenses. She is just one of the 1.1 millions in America.

In Longs Island she and 300 others are facing foreclosure. They met their lender as well as financial counselor at Joseph M Barry Career & Technical Educational Center in Westbury to attend a forum named “Operation Protect Your Home”. Maritza and many others left the venue with hope in their hearts that the lenders would negotiate and they would be able to keep the houses that were their homes.

So far seven such forums have been held in the state – the organizers being Senate Democratic Conference & Department of Banking. Thanks to these initiatives so far 1,600 house owners have been able to save their homes said Senator Jeffrey Klein (D-Bronx).

The elected officials present at the meet said that Long Island has borne the onslaught of the mortgage crisis raging in the state. According to a report released in March by Empire Justice Center there were 1,600 foreclosures in Nassau and about 3,000 in Suffolk. These were the two leading regions. Nassau County seems to be the epicenter of the foreclosure earthquake. Senator Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington) said that they were doing their best “to address the crisis”.

The Barry Centre saw streams of house owners flowing in within 30 minutes of the opening of the doors. Most of them talked first for about 10 to 15 minutes with their financial counselors. Individual meetings with lending personnel followed. Each of the seven banks/mortgage servicers had one representative. Sheik Nabijohn of Citibank encouraged the borrowers by saying “Don’t take ‘no’ for an answer.” He personally enquired the borrowers about the progress of the meeting and whether it was satisfactory or not. The cases were all individual specific and there was no blue print for all. One lady thanked Nabijohn for asking but added “unless I am handed a winning lottery ticket when I walk out the door, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

For others the meeting boded well for the future. The lenders however at this stage could not do anything but promise to try. There was hot talk about reducing the rates and forgiving due payments – but nothing specific or definite.

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