“For Father Working Three Jobs, a Startling Diagnosis”

The New York Times Neediest Cases series focused its attention on Staten Island Legal Services Client Jose Perez and his family. The Perez family had only recently moved into their new home when disaster struck in the form of flooding, which was not covered by insurance. Shortly after, Mr. Perez was diagnosed with renal failure which left him unable to work as the bank began foreclosure proceedings on his home.

From the January 6th article:

By the time the renal failure was diagnosed, Mr. Perez was trying to make ends meet by working three jobs — as a teacher’s assistant, as a handyman for the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services and as a counselor for the AHRC, a social services agency. But he said his mortgage bank had repeatedly denied him a loan adjustment because of the flooding issue. And soon, as Mr. Perez’s debt mounted, he said, the bank filed papers to begin the foreclosure process.

Mr. Perez, who was then unable to work, was at his wits’ end.

“I wasn’t used to depending on others,” he said. He had learned to take on responsibilities early: At 17, he became the breadwinner in the family, providing for his mother and his three younger siblings after his father left the household.

Now, as Mr. Perez was on the verge of going to food pantries, he approached Staten Island Legal Services on the advice of a housing counselor. Legal Services lawyers represented him in court and helped him negotiate a short payoff of his second mortgage, using money from The New York Times Neediest Cases Subprime Mortgage Program.

Read the full piece at NYTimes.com.