Foreclosure prevention assistance coming to Canarsie

July 9, 2013 Editorial Staff
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Canarsie homeowners who are facing foreclosure will soon be getting help from an organization that specializes in foreclosure prevention counseling and services.

The Central Brooklyn-based Bridge Street Development Corporation (BSDC), which hasĀ  focused in recent years on the neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, announced earlier this month that it had expanded to the southeastern Brooklyn neighborhood where the rate of foreclosures has been high, and where damage from Hurricane Sandy had added to the difficulties of homeowners who already may have been under water.

ā€œIn the wake of Hurricane Sandy, hundreds of Canarsie homeowners that were already behind on mortgage payments are struggling to find money to cover repairs, lost rental income and temporary housing,ā€ said Edward Odom, BSDC board chair.

Canarsie is home to one of the highest concentrations of one and two-family homes in all of New York City, with the highest homeownership rate in Brooklyn at 58 percent.

Nonetheless, the working-class area with 200,000 residents has endured a foreclosure crisis stoked by predatory lending ā€“ subprime loans as well as adjustable rate mortgages that skyrocketed from two percent to nearly 13 percent, according to BSDC. In 2011, BSDC said, nearly 3,000 Canarsie households received pre-foreclosure notices, the highest of any neighborhood in New York City.

The hope is that BSDC can help change the trajectory. ā€œThrough this initiative, made possible by a grant from the Citi Foundation, BSDCā€™s experienced foreclosure counselors will work with distressed homeowners and their banks to negotiate modified loan terms with affordable payments that will allow owners from losing their homes,ā€ Odom explained.

The core services being offered by BSDC to the community of Canarsie are Homeownership Education and Counseling, Economic Development, and affordable Housing and Civic Engagement.

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