By MATT CHANDLER
mchandler@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1654

New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced his office will fund $1 million in foreclosure prevention services to aid New Yorkers struggling through the foreclosure crisis.

He issued a Request for Applications (RFA) seeking bids from nonprofit legal services and legal aid organizations to provide direct legal services to homeowners in foreclosure or at imminent risk of foreclosure.

"As our state faces another tight budget year, we must be creative and aggressive in our efforts to support working families who are struggling to stay in their homes," Schneiderman said in a release. "This funding will provide thousands of New Yorkers with the legal expertise they desperately need to defend their rights and avoid falling prey to unscrupulous mortgage servicers or foreclosure mill law firms filing fabricated or robosigned documents. My office will continue to use every tool available to us to protect homeowners and all vulnerable New Yorkers."

The $1 million will come from unspent dollars from a 2006 settlement between the Attorney General's Office and Ameriquest Mortgage, Co. The investigation found that Ameriquest engaged in predatory and illegal lending practices to sell and refinance mortgages, including misrepresenting and failing to disclose loan terms, charging excessive loan origination fees and inflating appraisals to qualify borrowers for loans. As part of the settlement, Ameriquest paid approximately $22 million to New York.

Schneiderman ordered an expedited RFA process, which could result in awards for funding in as little as eight weeks.

"Homeowners across this state are struggling in these tough economic times. We owe a debt of gratitude for Attorney General Schneiderman's bold action that will give the working families in our community a fighting chance," said Buffalo Common Council Member Darius Pridgen. "By allocating resources for foreclosure prevention services, the Attorney General has once again stood up for those who need our help the most."

Joseph Kellerman is executive director of the Western New York Law Center. He said funding cuts have made the work of representing people facing foreclosure more challenging, and he sees the earmarked cash as a step in the right direction.

"It is a good stop-gap measure, but we hope that the program will be fully funded in the executive budget in April," Kellerman said.

He noted that the federal cuts for foreclosure work totaled $25 million over two years, so while $1 million is important, it isn't nearly enough to address the crisis, which has hit Western New York hard.

"Erie County is probably sixth or seventh in the state in terms of foreclosure cases filed," he said. "But given the size of our population, which is a lot smaller than a lot of the counties ahead of us, it means we have more foreclosures per capita than most counties in the state."

With the economy still in a state of flux and uncertainty looming over the housing market, Kellerman said unless a larger portion of the lost funding is restored, ultimately it is homeowners in Western New York and across the state who will continue to suffer.

"We have a very good success rate with getting our clients into a loan-modification program," he said. "We are at something like a 60 or 65 percent success rate. The end result of the ongoing funding crisis is that we won't be able to take nearly as many cases as there is a need for in Erie County." The guidelines for applying and the application will be posted in the New York State Contract Reporter (www.nyscr.org) and will also be available on the Attorney General's website (www.ag.ny.gov) later this week.