LSNYC Praises NYS AGs Efforts on Mortgage Servicers Settlement

February 09, 2012

February 9, 2012—Legal Services NYC today praised Attorney General Schneiderman's advocacy on behalf of New York’s homeowners and his efforts to strengthen the national settlement with mortgage servicers, and we look forward to learning more details about the settlement, with the hope that this settlement is enforced with more vigor than some previously-heralded settlements whose impacts have been disappointing. We are especially relieved to learn that the Attorney General’s lawsuit against several major servicers and Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) was not withdrawn as the banks had demanded, as there is still much more work to do to address unfair and deceptive foreclosure practices in New York.

It is worth remembering, furthermore, that the abuses which are the subject of the 50-state settlement only came to light when homeowners
had advocates representing them in foreclosure proceedings, so it remains crucial that New York restore the funding for the Foreclosure
Prevention Services Program that has been funding housing counseling and legal assistance to distressed homeowners for the last four years,
which the Governor’s proposed budget is eliminating altogether. While this settlement is encouraging, it does not help many distressed
homeowners, and with the foreclosure crisis not yet halfway through, this is hardly the time to dismantle New York’s highly effective network of foreclosure prevention advocates.

[View the letter from the Statewide Campaign to Save Foreclosure Prevention Services Program to Governor Cuomo.] 

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