NYC To Offer Free Legal Support In Mandatory Settlement Conferences For Homeowners In Foreclosure

In New York City, Crain's New York Business reports:

• The city announced [] that it will be offering free legal support for New Yorkers at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure. The new program will be offered through NYC Service, which was launched last year by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to provide volunteer services to different sectors across the city suffering from the recession. The program will train and dispatch 300 volunteer attorneys to expand the legal services already provided by nonprofits to homeowners facing foreclosure.

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• The program, dubbed NYC Service Legal Outreach, will provide homeowners legal assistance during the mandatory settlement conference, which is when the homeowner and bank meet to negotiate alternatives to a foreclosure. Under a recently passed New York state law, these conferences are required before foreclosures can proceed.

• The city hopes to recruit 300 volunteers over the next three months. One hundred of those volunteers will be stationed at courthouses to screen homeowners, while the other volunteers will be matched with individual homeowners and represent them through the foreclosure settlement process.

• Volunteers do not need real estate law expertise because they will be trained and supervised by Empire Justice Center, Legal Services NYC, The Legal Aid Society and the City Bar Justice Center. The Center for NYC Neighborhoods, a non profit created three years ago to assist distressed homeowners, will direct homeowners to the program.(1)

For more, see City to offer legal aid to those facing foreclosure (Mayor launches program to train and dispatch 300 volunteer attorneys; vows “no family facing the loss of their home should be without representation").

(1) For a Center for NYC Neighborhoods report on how the court-based “mandatory settlement conference” process in New York foreclosure actions has yet to live up to expectations, see LOCKED OUT: Little Relief for NYC Homeowners in the Foreclosure Settlement Process ("Of the nearly 800 settlement conferences reviewed during this study, only 3% resulted in any kind of settlement").