December 4, 2011
By Mark Roth
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Barbara Buckley realized early in 2009 that Las Vegas was entering a full-blown housing crisis.
That's when the executive director of the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada began to see clients who were struggling to make their house payments, but couldn't reach any accommodation with their lenders.
The people coming through her door had a recurring complaint.
"The refrain was common: 'I'm in trouble, I need help. And if only I could get someone on the phone who had a brain, we could work this out. I have an adjustable rate mortgage, the interest rate is out of whack, my hours were cut -- anybody with a brain would work this out and stop yet another senseless foreclosure, but I can't get anybody on the phone.'"
