The Center for New York City Neighborhoods (CNYCN) recently announced $1.246 million in grants to Legal Services NYC and its programs, including $400,000 earmarked for South Brooklyn Legal Services by the Robin Hood Foundation. The awards will be used to coordinate new and expanded foreclosure prevention legal services city-wide.

The Center for New York City Neighborhoods (CNYCN), recently launched with public and private support, assists homeowners and renters threatened by the current mortgage foreclosure crisis with loss of their homes, primarily due to illegal and abusive subprime mortgage loans.  The CNYCN, the largest such initiative in the country, serves as a clearinghouse for comprehensive foreclosure intervention services provided by community-based organizations, including legal assistance, housing counseling, loan remediation, preventive outreach and education, and advocacy.  The Robin Hood Foundation has targeted poverty in New York City since 1988 by finding and funding the best and most effective programs and partnering with them to maximize results.

In addition to the $400,000 grant to South Brooklyn Legal Services from Robin Hood, grants from CNYCN will be distributed to Legal Services NYC-Bronx ($155,000), Staten Island Legal Services ($213,000), and Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A ($230,000), to expand and enhance legal services for homeowners in distress. Legal Services NYC’s Legal Support Unit has also been awarded $250,000 for its work as CNYCN’s Legal Services Program Partner, supporting and coordinating foreclosure prevention legal services work city-wide through training, technical assistance, and advocacy.

Through our Foreclosure Prevention work at South Brooklyn Legal Services, Staten Island Legal Services, Legal Services NYC-Bronx, Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A, and the Legal Support Unit, Legal Services NYC is at the forefront of the national fight against predatory lending practices in the subprime lending market.  Predatory lending practices lead to foreclosure, homelessness, financial devastation and loss of hard-earned home equity (the sole source of wealth for many lower income homeowners), displacement of long-time residents, and destabilization of neighborhoods.  Legal Services NYC's work includes providing legal assistance to homeowners, including advice, advocacy and litigation services; advising community-based organizations concerning specific cases; and helping to coordinate and provide training for foreclosure prevention attorneys and advocates throughout the City.

Legal Services NYC —the largest organization exclusively devoted to providing free civil legal services in the United States, with neighborhood offices in every borough of New York City—provides free help on cases involving housing, family, domestic violence, public benefits, income tax, employment, education, consumer rights and economic development.  Legal Services NYC programs include Legal Services NYC-Bronx, Bedford-Stuyvesant Community Legal Services, Brooklyn Family Defense Project, Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A, Legal Services NYC-Brooklyn Branch, South Brooklyn Legal Services, Manhattan Legal Services, Queens Legal Services, Staten Island Legal Services, and the Legal Services NYC Legal Support Unit. Funding for the Legal Services NYC programs comes from the Legal Services Corporation, grants from the city, the state and federal agencies, private foundations, United Way of New York City, the New York State Interest on Lawyers Account Fund and private donations.