One Brooklyn
BROOKLYN, NY, November 26, 2018: Today, Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams and Council Member Robert Cornegy, Jr., the chair of the Committee on Housing and Buildings, called for a full-scale forensic audit and investigation on the federal, state, and city levels into the issue of deed fraud in the borough of Brooklyn, including the role that the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD)’s Third Party Transfer (TPT) program may be unintentionally playing in defrauding homeowners of their property. In letters they sent last week to United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey S. Berman, New York State Attorney General Barbara Underwood, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, and Public Advocate Letitia James, Borough President Adams and Council Member Cornegy additionally asked for their partnership with the City Council to enact a temporary moratorium on TPT seizures and other foreclosures in Brooklyn so as to ensure that no illegal activity is occurring.
“Deed fraud and mortgage foreclosures have reached a crisis moment in Brooklyn,” wrote Borough President Adams and Council Member Cornegy. “In previous years, our offices worked together to host forums to highlight available resources to curtail deed fraud and prevent foreclosures on homes that may be at risk. However, through extensive discussions with community stakeholders we have become aware that there appears to be deeper, and possibly illegal, actions being undertaken to defraud homeowners of their property. When a person’s home is endangered or seized, especially when it is being done by or through the participation of a government agency, we must ensure any action taken against them occurred completely within the bounds of the law. We must do more to ensure that bad actors and government programs are not forcing seniors and low-income residents out of their homes in the face of a changing borough, especially since it was these same families who made Brooklyn such an attractive place to raise healthy children and families. We must do what we can to ensure they reap the benefits of their investment in communities that were historically ignored.”
In a press conference at Brooklyn Borough Hall that announced this call for action, Borough President Adams and Council Member Cornegy were joined by a number of impacted homeowners who have reached out to their offices in recent months, as well as an attorney who works regularly with foreclosure defendants. Their experiences spoke to the breadth of the issues surrounding deed fraud and wrongful property seizures, as well as the potential involvement of multiple parties in negligence and/or wrongdoing.
“When I went to go pay my tax bill, they said I needed a letter from HPD, but when I went to HPD to pay the bill, I was told I needed to come back with copies of the deed, license, and bank statement,” said homeowner McConnell Dorcy. “They said to come back over and over again, while indicating I had no violations. After waiting for three months over the summer, I was told that I was foreclosed due to violations that I was not even made aware of. It was not clear what I violated to designate my property as distressed.”
“Borough President Adams is someone who cares about homeowners and is hearing our voices,” said homeowner Ralph Parker. “Presenting a deed to the courts can take some time, and what happens is you get phone calls asking whether there’s an interest to sell the home. People know the system and create fictitious names and that’s how they get defrauded. Even if the fraudster is found, the homeowner still needs a lawyer to file papers and get the property back in their name. It is not fair that criminals can do this, and we the victims must pay thousands of dollars to rectify it with nobody being punished.”
“One day I was sitting in the kitchen and someone left a note on the door saying our home was being taken away with no prior notice and not even introducing themselves of who they were,” said homeowner Marlene Saunders. “We did not have any debts nor owe anything with our records being totally clean. I met other people in our position who were railroaded to zero and it is absurd.”
“My house was not only taken from me, but I’m also about to be taken into custody by the New York City Sheriff’s Office,” said homeowner Van Walker. “They came to my house on August 2nd, threw me out — as well as my five-year-old daughter and 20-year-old son — and told us to pack up and leave the house under the threat they would incarcerate me. This was an order from the [Kings County] Supreme Court foreclosure division. I refused to sign my deed in lieu of foreclosure, so I was held in contempt of court and sentenced to jail time. The deed, bills, and taxes are still under my name.”
“Thank you to Borough President Adams for taking up the mantle in such a public way for something that has been ravaging this borough for the past six to eight years,” said Yolande I. Nicholson, Esq., president of the New York State Foreclosure Defense Bar. “Ten years ago, New York State declared that it was critical that we protect and save homeownership across the city following the 2008 financial and sub-prime mortgage crises. Yet today, we’re facing the largest number of African-American children sleeping in homeless shelters since World War II and the Great Depression. It is without question that illegal and improper foreclosures in our courts are reducing the number of affordable units that are available to working families in Brooklyn. Small property owners have always been the providers of the most affordable housing in the outer boroughs of our City, for both their families and their tenants; taking away their ownership through improper foreclosure proceedings and TPT judgments in fact exacerbates the affordable housing crisis, while wiping out the option for African-Americans especially to preserve and pass on generational wealth.”
-30-
