Legal Services NYC-Brooklyn Branch helps Midwood Families Avoid Foreclosure, Predatory Lenders

A Brooklyn Daily Eagle article highlights important tips from a recent Legal Services NYC-Brooklyn Branch foreclosure prevention seminar. 

Legal Services NYC saw a 37 percent increase in the overall number of new foreclosure cases in Brooklyn from 2007 to 2008.  Midwood is one Brooklyn neighborhood that is feeling the strains of the crisis. Our Brooklyn Branch office invited local families to P.S. 197 to help them navigate unfamiliar territory.

MIDWOOD — With a 400 percent reported spike in new Midwood foreclosure
cases from 2007 to 2008 — and an almost 40 percent spike in new
foreclosure cases across Brooklyn — Legal Services-New York City is
prepared to counsel homeowners and tenants “already in too deep,”
attorney Steve Bernstein told attendees at a seminar last week.

Brooklyn-based Legal Services-NYC attorney Bernstein joined with
Midwood’s P.S. 197 PTA to host a “Know Your Rights” foreclosure seminar
for local families last Wednesday to give the parents/homeowners tips
for surviving the housing crisis.

“The first wave of subprime loans may have crested, but many homeowners
are still in over their heads. And every day it seems like another
family is getting taken advantage of by a predatory lender,” said
Bernstein. “It is critical for homeowners and tenants in Midwood and
around Brooklyn to know their rights and how to avoid this crisis.”

Through our Foreclosure Prevention Projects, Legal Services NYC is at
the forefront of the national fight against predatory lending practices
in the subprime lending market. Predatory lending practices lead to
foreclosure, homelessness, financial devastation and loss of
hard-earned equity (which is the sole source of wealth for many lower
income homeowners), displacement of long-time residents and
destabilization of neighborhoods.

Legal Services NYC's work includes:

• Providing legal assistance, including advice, advocacy and litigation services, to homeowners;
• Providing advice and assistance to community-based organizations on specific cases;and
• Helping to coordinate and provide training for foreclosure prevention advocates throughout the City.