Hundreds attend home mortgage safety seminar

Several local residents, including Elmont resident Mimi Pierre-Johnson, participated in a rally against inflexible mortgage-modification practices on March 21, in Hempstead.

Courtesy Brian Young

Elmont homeowners discussed foreclosure concerns with Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola) on March 10, at a mortgage safety seminar in Elmont, sponsored by Martins.

Courtesy Scott Cushing

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Nearly 450 local residents attended a mortgage safety seminar at the Elmont Memorial Library in Elmont on March 10.

The program, sponsored by Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola), with the help of state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, began with a roundtable discussion where Martins; Attorney General Office Attorney Valerie Singleton; and Max Dubin, of Cuomo’s Financial Services Office, answered questions regarding home foreclosure, rescue scams, modification issues and response times from banks.

Several residents with first-time homebuyer issues scheduled one-on-one appointments with Martins and other officials. Other residents submitted complaints to the AG’s office. According to Martins, more than 70 community residents filed complaint forms with state officials regarding mortgage modification applications.

Mimi Pierre-Johnson, an Elmont resident who attended the seminar on behalf of New York Communities for Change — a coalition focused on fighting for social and economic justice for low and moderate-income families throughout New York — shared a personal story about having to record phone calls with her bank, which claimed dozens of times that her paperwork for a mortgage modification she’d applied for had been lost or needed to be resubmitted.

Other complaints that were filed at the event dealt with rescue scams, where residents received fraudulent fliers at their homes regarding mortgage relief.

“The stories ... were shocking and very disturbing, to say the very least,” Martins said. “This seminar effort is a start in putting an end to our community being a victim of the foreclosure nightmare.”

Attendees included the Elmont Bethpage Federal Credit Union, Sovereign Bank, New York Communities for Change and Bank of America, as well as residents of Elmont, Franklin Square, Floral Park, South Floral Park, Westbury, New Cassel, Bellerose Terrace and North Valley Stream.