Nonprofits bear brunt of foreclosure fight Mortgage counselors in Hope NOW program say demand is overwhelming

NEW YORK - Mohammed Ibrahim is overwhelmed by people asking for help.

"It's not only the sheer volume of people needing help but the emotion," said Ibrahim, a counselor at the Neighborhood Housing Services of Staten Island in New York. "Each person comes with a different story. Often they break down and cry."

The group that Ibrahim works for helps financially troubled families in Staten Island, a middle-income borough of New York City, try to avoid foreclosure on their homes.

The number of calls to his office jumped last summer as the mortgage crisis gripping the United States escalated. It rose even more in October, when a national hotline that refers cases to local groups like Ibrahim's became a central part of a government plan to prevent foreclosures.

Between October and December of 2007, Ibrahim took on 63 cases, compared with 77 cases for the previous nine months and just a handful in 2006. After some holiday respite, January is already shaping up to be even busier, he said.

Around the New York region and in other parts of the country, mortgage counselors report a similar onslaught of cases, especially since Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced the HOPE NOW alliance of lenders, investors and counselors in October.

"We're getting so many calls about the government plan, but no real answers on how we are supposed to help them," said Eileen Anderson, who runs two NeighborWorks counseling centers on suburban Long Island, outside New York City.

The number of calls to Anderson's offices rose more than tenfold in 2007 from the year before, and since October more than half of those calls have been referrals from HOPE NOW, she said.

‘Clients ... are desperate’
While the HOPE NOW alliance puts troubled borrowers in touch with counselors, both counselors and borrowers complain it offers no financial help.

"There's no money, nobody has emergency funds. Clients who are calling are desperate," Anderson said.

Agnes Kallon and Bai Turay, a Staten Island couple, are among the people that Ibrahim is trying to help. Kallon, a nursing assistant at Richmond University Hospital, and Turay, who receives disability allowance, have a combined income of $39,000 and six children to support.

In 2005 they took out a mortgage for a $412,000 house with a low introductory rate, based on their mortgage broker's assurance that they would easily be able to refinance when the rate went up. But when their mortgage payment reset to $3,000 a month, far beyond what they can afford, that assurance didn't hold up.

"If we lose the house, what will happen to the kids?" Turay asked. "These brokers are profiting from other people's misery."

The buildup of such cases means the process of negotiating deals with lenders to keep the homeowners in their homes is taking ever longer. And the further down the path to foreclosure they go, the less likely it can be avoided.

Infant skeleton in Penn. suitcase examined Authorities say no sign of trauma to child although cause of death unknown

GREENSBURG, Pennsylvania - An infant's skeleton found in a dead woman's suitcase was born at 35 weeks gestation, but authorities do not know its gender or how long it had been there.

There was no sign of trauma to the fetus, whose remains were found Saturday in Hempfield Township, said Westmoreland County chief deputy coroner Paul Cycak. The cause and manner of death will likely be ruled undetermined, he said.

The remains also will be examined by a forensic anthropologist at Mercyhurst College, state police said. It remains unclear when that examination will take place. Police said the investigation is ongoing.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht used bone measurements and other techniques to determine the fetus' age, Cycak told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The fetus was wrapped in a "smock," its arms folded across its chest and its knees tucked into its chest in a fetal position, Cycak said.

State police said adult siblings cleaning out their elderly mother's house after she died in early December found the skeleton in an "old style" suitcase stored under the woman's bed. Cycak said the suitcase appeared to be from the 1950s.

The siblings did not recognize the suitcase as their mother's, but said clothes found inside belonged to her, Trooper Lisa Jobe said. Police did not immediately release the dead woman's name.

No charges have been filed. The coroner did not immediately return calls for comment from The Associated Press on Monday.