An article in this issue of the Norwood News takes a look at the foreclosure crisis ravaging the housing stock in the Bronx, where borrowers took on deceptively attractive subprime loans for the chance to live the American Dream and purchase a home.

Housing advocates say many homeowners are doing their suffering in silence – either ashamed to seek help or ignorant as to how to find help. They need help in figuring out how to restructure their loans.

But where? University Neighborhood Housing Program is doing outreach, but only one woman, Teresa Ortiz of Neighborhood Housing Services, is doing foreclosure counseling in the entire northwest Bronx. By all accounts, Ortiz is doing a great job, but she’s just one person. There are hundreds, if not thousands, who need a Teresa Ortiz.

For years, grassroots neighborhood improvement efforts have focused on tenant issues, and for good reason. But homeowners, even in smaller percentages, tend to stabilize communities. They are simply more invested than renters. If those investments are taken from them and from our neighborhoods, our communities will suffer.

Our elected officials should collectively figure out a way to provide more counseling and financial services to Bronx homeowners.

They need help and they need it now.