Memphis-Area Non-Profit Assists Poor, Elderly In Foreclosure Fight; Limited Rescources Forces Firm To Turn Away Many In Need

In Memphis, Tennessee, Commercial Appeal reports:

• [T]his year Memphis Area Legal Services launched its Home Preservation Project, which was created to strengthen our organization's fight against the home foreclosure crisis. This project provides free services to those at risk of losing their homes because of trouble meeting mortgage obligations. Memphis Area Legal Services attorneys work closely with trained foreclosure counselors to restructure loans in order to allow some homeowners to successfully pay their mortgages and retain their homes. Our staff also works to educate the poor and elderly about how to identify and avoid predatory lenders.

• Memphis Area Legal Services 16 attorneys provide advice and assistance to more than 3,000 eligible clients a year -- clients whose problems range beyond mortgage lending issues into other legal problems such as domestic violence and consumer fraud. Yet because of limited financial resources, we must turn down more than half of the people who seek legal help from our organization. That means many of the elderly and working poor in our community are left to face critical legal issues alone, without access to a lawyer, and thus, without equal access to justice.

For more, see Foreclosure catastrophe needs your help (Mid-South residents have volunteered to help Gulf Coast storm victims, but a similarly devastating disaster is quietly happening here and now).