Kimberly Fenelon and her daughter were making snowmen in the front yard of her home in Hunts Point, the Bronx, when she was approached by a woman who handed her a stack of papers.

It was the day after Christmas, and a winter storm was dusting the New York City area with pristine white powder. As Fenelon realized what was happening, she burst into tears. Then so did her daughter, who was 6 at the time.

Fenelon, a single mother in her early 30s, had fallen behind on her mortgage. The home was once her mother’s, who died two years prior from cancer, leaving Fenelon to pay off the remaining balance.

“I was stunned,” Fenelon said. “I didn’t know what to do.”

Fenelon is one of more than 1,000 Bronx residents who were issued a foreclosure filing in 2025, according to an accounting from the Center for New York City Neighborhoods, an organization that supports local homeowners.

Foreclosure filings skyrocketed last year, according to a report from the real estate company Property Shark. The borough recorded 109 first-time foreclosures in the second quarter of this year, the highest in seven years, while foreclosures across the city declined.

Now, New York City, state, and local organizations are ramping up efforts to help people like Fenelon who have fallen behind on their mortgages, and are encouraging people to seek help before it reaches the point of foreclosure.

“ If you hit some sort of unforeseen bump or problem, there's help available,” said Christie Peale, the CEO of the Center for New York City Neighborhoods. “A lot of folks just don't know that.”

“ The earlier that you reach out for help, the easier it is for us to help you,” Peale added.

Community outreach efforts to get Peale’s message across are in full swing.

Last weekend, the New York attorney general’s office hosted a block-walking event through the North Bronx, where foreclosures are particularly concentrated.

Volunteers knocked on more than 1,100 doors to disseminate information about resources designed to help Bronx residents struggling with homeownership and to warn people about scams, like deed theft, another threat to homeownership in the borough.

“For many New Yorkers, home ownership represents a pinnacle of their success, of their career,” Attorney General Letitia James told a crowd of volunteers gearing up to knock on doors. The best way to protect homeowners, she added, is to equip them with resources.

“There cannot be prevention without education,” James said.

The event was followed by three separate clinics that offered free legal counsel for Bronx homeowners concerned about foreclosure. That includes the two standing clinics at the Bronx County civil courthouse, and a resource fair at Bronx House, a community center in Pelham Parkway, hosted by the Center for NYC Neighborhoods and the AG’s office. There, about 125 people sought assistance from city agencies and nonprofit organizations.