Top Assembly Democrat Mocks Cuomo Program

Watch your back Helene Weinstein. From today’s Heard Around Town.

* A top Assembly Democrat mocked Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s anti-foreclosure efforts in a radio interview yesterday, arguing that a van sent by the new Department of Financial Services to distribute information about loan modifications would do little to stem the tide of home foreclosures in the state. “The governor said he was establishing a unit to deal with foreclosure, but all that I’ve seen from that unit has been a van,” Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, said in an interview with The Capitol Pressroom’s Susan Arbetter. DFS Superintendent Ben Lawsky announced last week the Department’s “mobile command unit” would travel the state in the coming weeks in an effort to “stem mortgage foreclosures by helping homeowners at risk of losing their homes.” But Weinstein said the state’s distressed homeowners need more resources like legal services, not a van tour. “Obviously sending a van with staff to talk to homeowners who are about to go into foreclosure isn’t going to solve the problem,” she said. “That doesn’t provide someone in the courtroom to be able to advocate on your behalf, to be able to negotiate.”