Foreclosure prevention programs face budget crisis
Leon Keith nearly lost his three-family home in the Bronx in 2012, after becoming ensnared in a high-profile Ponzi scheme. He credits the foreclosure prevention services operated by the Legal Aid Society helping him in court and in obtaining a loan modification that enabled him to pay his mortgage. “They [Legal Aid] stuck to a plan and never gave up,” said Keith a 72-year-old retired postal worker. “They said they wouldn’t abandon me if I wanted to keep fighting…and, eventually, we all came to an amiable agreement.” But now the network of foreclosure prevention programs that helped Keith faces a financial crisis of its own. Funding for the services will end on September 30.
