NYC Municipal Employees Union Consumer Law Unit Steps Up To Aid Members In Foreclosure

In the Woodlawn section of The Bronx, the New York Daily News reports:

• Leonard Kirkland, a janitor at Harlem Hospital, is six months behind on his mortgage payments and about to lose his home. But because he is a city employee, he has a chance to save it. As the subprime mortgage crisis pummels neighborhoods across the city, the 150,000 members of District Council 37, the municipal employees union, have extra armor and ammunition in the fight against scheming mortgage brokers and adjustable interest rates.

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• In 2006, attorneys from the union did not handle any mortgage delinquency or foreclosure cases, but between 2007 and 2008, they have assisted in 151 such cases as adjustable interest rates ballooned.

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• "We see it all the time. They make these kind of mistakes," said Carla Latty, supervising attorney for the union's consumer law unit. "The mortgage people are in the community. The clients get to trust this mortgage broker. Sometimes, they steer them away from going to the union. They say, 'We have everyone under the roof,'" Latty said. "Some things would have been avoided if we would have talked to them," she added.

For more, see District Council 37 keeping homebuyers from paying dearly for missteps.