Nov 6, 2008 7:39 pm US/Eastern
Foreclosure Crisis Now An Epidemic On Long Island
Many Islanders Got Lured In By Unscrupulous Lenders And Are Now Paying The Price With Their Homes
BETHPAGE, N.Y. (CBS) ―
The foreclosure crisis is starting to severely impact many local communities, especially on Long Island. CBS 2 HD went to a foreclosure symposium on Thursday, where we saw the mortgage meltdown's devastating effect on some working families.
Tammye Rawls and her husband work two jobs and go to school at night, but are teetering on the edge of foreclosure on their Brentwood home. They are victims of shameless mortgage lenders who took them for a ride on the subprime express.
"[I] thought it was the American dream. It's more like the American nightmare," Rawls told CBS 2 HD.
More than half of Long Islanders spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing. So the lure of easy credit was irresistible. And now it is all crashing down.
Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi on Thursday called on all mortgage lenders to follow J.P. Morgan Chase's decision to implement a 90-day moratorium on all foreclosures in our area.
At a training workshop sponsored by Long Island Housing Partnership, bankers met with nonprofit groups to explore ways to repair mortgages. Suffolk and Nassau counties rank 1 and 4 in the number of loans at risk of foreclosure in the state.
Families like Jean Clayton's in Bethpage are fighting to keep their homes for the life of the loans, after being swindled, she said, by an unscrupulous lender.
Because of the lack of affordable rentals here, some foreclosure victims fear they will be forced to live illegally, move in with other family members, or move off Long Island.
Long Island Housing Partnership, a non-profit group, will offer at no charge to fix people's credit, convert their loans and negotiate with lenders.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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