Churches in New York Look To Aid Borrowers in Trouble

By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press
May 15, 2008

The Reverend Jeffry Dillon switched from the religious to the secular on a recent Sunday morning to ask his parishioners a pointed question: "Do subprime mortgages scare you?"

Then he announced that the Roman Catholic parish, not far from JFK International Airport in Queens, was offering a workshop after Mass to help people in danger of losing their homes.

Embracing the religious tradition of helping the poor, pastors around the nation are doubling as financial shepherds for their mortgage-distressed flocks.

"What happens to the lives of people daily is important," a spokeswoman for Catholic Charities USA, Jean Beil, said. "God calls us to care for the poor."

New York City saw more than 6,000 foreclosure filings in just the first three months of this year, out of more than 14,000 statewide — a 40% increase over last year, according to the New York State Banking Department. Brooklyn and Queens alone represented about a third of the state's defaults, clustered in the boroughs' minority neighborhoods.

In response to the crisis, 10 churches in Brooklyn and Queens have offered workshops this year to counsel anyone who shows up — church members or not — on how to avert foreclosure and the so-called predatory lending that can make financial victims of homeowners.

Around the country, Catholic Charities USA, the Alexandria, Va.-based umbrella group for its member relief agencies in various states, is running programs similar to the ones in New York. The national group says it's helped more than 4,000 homeowners in a dozen communities from Atlanta to Santa Rosa, Calif.

At the recent workshop in Queens, parishioners at Christ the King Church helped themselves to coffee and doughnuts while filling out financial forms to prepare for appointments with counselors from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, ACORN, a national housing activist group.

In February, Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio — whose diocese includes Queens — convened a forum to tackle the crisis, with the help of Senator Schumer, housing organizations, and banking officials.

"Church-based and other religious groups are vital to making sure that the families most in danger hear directly from their spiritual leaders about how to get help and receive the best advice in the country from local community groups to help save their homes," Mr. Schumer said.