Lender seeks to foreclose

The bank is owed more than 250,000.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR PENNSYLVANIA BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- The nearly defunct Affordable Housing of Lawrence County is headed back to court.
First Commonwealth Bank has filed a mortgage foreclosure in Lawrence County Common Pleas Court to take the last remaining property owned by the group.
The complaint was filed Nov. 8 and states the bank is owed 252,261.63 from the group.
Affordable Housing of Lawrence County came to the forefront about a year ago after buying eight properties in New Castle with the intention of refurbishing them for needy people with disabilities.
Shortly after Affordable Housing took out the 250,000 bank loan for the duplexes, triplexes and four-plexes, a majority of the board of directors quit.
The remaining board members said they attempted to collect rent from the tenants to pay the mortgage, but tenants refused to pay because of the buildings' poor condition. City officials eventually deemed most of the properties uninhabitable.
The two remaining board members sold all but one of the houses at a public auction in September, garnering 56,200. About 40,000 was given to the bank to pay toward the mortgage.
At that time, bank solicitor Michael Flaherty said the bank was considering legal action to recoup the rest of its money.
Here's the situation
Flaherty said last week the mortgage foreclosure on 1123-1125 Dewey Ave. is the bank's first legal action in the matter and more could come later.
He said once the bank takes possession of the property, any proceeds will be deducted from the mortgage amount owed. He said those proceeds won't meet the more than 250,000 owed to the bank.
According to court papers, the group owes 219,357.94 on the loan and more than 30,000 in attorney fees for the bank, court papers stated.
Deno DeLorenzo, the Affordable Housing president, could not be reached to comment.
DeLorenzo testified in court in late September that the group had 14 cents in its bank account.
He had been called to testify in a civil action filed by the Lawrence County Housing Authority. The housing authority was trying to recoup 200,500 it lent to the group.
Housing authority officials eventually dropped the lawsuit.
cioffi@vindy.com