"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Judith Chhakowrie stood in the hall
of Supreme Court recently dabbing tears from her eyes and
quietly asking a lawyer some startling questions: 'Can
they kick me out of my house?' 'What happens if I
walk away from the house?'"
In the past, Miss Chhakowrie may have never even showed up
at court to challenge her foreclosure. With no money left to
hire a lawyer and shame weighing heavily on many homeowners
like her, losing the house was often a foregone conclusion.
But a new state law that went into effect late last year is
changing how courts handle the foreclosure crisis by
requiring judges to schedule mandatory settlement
conferences between lenders and homeowners who received
subprime and exotic mortgages -- the kinds of loans that
triggered a national and global economic crisis.
Legal Services of Staten Island provides counseling for
homeowners who can't afford to bring an attorney to the
foreclosure conference, and the Richmond County Bar
Association has offered help.
[...]
Attorney Margaret Becker with the Homeowner Defense Project
at Staten Island Legal Services in St. George also believes
the program is working, with many bad loans moving in the
direction of a solution. She said the biggest problems so
far involve bank attorneys who don't come to the
conference with the authority to settle and homeowners who
don't show up at all.
"Homeowners need to come to court," she stressed.
When homeowners come to court without an attorney, Ms.
Becker often finds herself stepping in as both counsel and
counselor. That's what she was doing recently with Miss
Chhakowrie, who took a day off from her teaching job to
attend the conference.
Putting in extra hours at an after-school program, Miss
Chhakowrie figured she could make the $1,700-a-month
mortgage and the additional $389 in maintenance fees on her
Midland Beach home. She was renting in the Crown Heights
section of Brooklyn and desired a better life for her
daughter on Staten Island, she said.
"I honestly thought I could do it," she said.
"I thought I was a superwoman."
