The 54-year-old Caribbean immigrant was living the American dream before it turned into a nightmare. Opal Edie, a hardworking mother, and her five daughters live in southeast Queens, where the Jamaican-born woman had bought her home with an adjustable rate mortgage from a bank.

The trouble was that the monthly payments were frequently escalating, so much so that she was forced to modify the loan on two separate occasions, both involving hefty prepaid penalties. But instead of making life easier, the financial troubles mounted.

“It was an adjustable mortgage and after three years, the payments started going up again and again and the interest rate was 8.25 percent,” she explained. “The situation had reached the point at which I was simply paying interest on the mortgage loan without touching the principle. As if that wasn’t bad enough, it had reached the stage at which I couldn’t pay even the interest. I was in danger of losing my home.”

What aggravated the situation was that Edie was encouraged to take out the horrendous adjustable mortgage and modifications by a fellow West Indian, a Jamaican mortgage broker, who she insists, “should have known better” and should have given her better advice.

“My fellow countryman set me up to lose my home,” complained the woman. “By modifying my mortgage I jumped from the frying pan into the fire and my countryman did that. I didn’t know the details of these financial plans and when I thought he was helping me, he was really taking advantage of the situation.”

But Edie isn’t alone. Godinton Souvenir, a 58-year-old Guyanese who at one stage was paying more than $4,000 monthly on a $700,000 mortgage, turned to a West Indian broker for help to secure modification but ended up paying more than the original amount.

“It was a two family house but it was my dream and I was in trouble meeting the payments and I sought a modification,” Souvenir explained. “I was paying my mortgage on time and I had never missed a payment. But I sought a modification as the economy worsened and my over-time was slashed. I was taking home less money.”

Now he regrets it. After promising to re-negotiate the mortgage so Souvenir would pay less, the Grenadian broker forced the Guyanese to fork over almost $5,000 in fees for the modification, including bank charges and lawyer fees, who didn’t even attend the closing. “The monthly payments went up instead of declining,” he said.

He ended up paying about $700 more every month. “He could talk to me about Guyana and about things in the Caribbean and I trusted him,” said Souvenir.

Similar tales of woe are being heard across the city and not simply in Caribbean immigrant communities, for it has become a case of immigrants of all races preying on the foreign born from “the home country.”

That was when, like Edie, Souvenir and a host of others turned to Congressman Gregory Meeks, the long serving representative of the Sixth District, and a member of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee.

They sought Meeks’ assistance because the elected official had joined forces with the Consortium for Workers Education (CWE), an arm of the New York Central Labor Council, Money Watch and neighborhood churches to help homeowners avoid losing their property. They have launched a foreclosure prevention intervention initiative, which provides free legal help and financial advice to people in trouble.

So far, more than 120 homeowners in and out of the Congressional District have turned to Meeks’ office in the past three months. As many as 23 houses have been saved from going into foreclosure while assistance to others is being negotiated.

“Southeast Queens is the epicenter of the foreclosure crisis in New York City,” the Congressman explained. “There is clear evidence that predators are preying on these homeowners, most of whom are Black and many of the victims are single mothers or senior citizens. That’s why we launched the initiative and homeowners don’t have to pay anything for the service they are receiving.”

So, every Wednesday, attorneys, accountants and others with experience in the mortgage and housing industry use Meeks’ office to stave off foreclosure.

“We have turned over our office to them so they can save people’s homes,” added Meeks. “I have seen first-hand how the financial crisis has trickled down from Wall Street to Main Street,” he said. “With the assistance of the CWE Foreclosure Prevention Initiative, numerous southeast Queens families’ homes have been rescued from auction and foreclosure, keeping residents in their homes and stabilizing neighborhoods.”

Unfortunately, said John McDermott of Consortium for Workers Education, some people would lose their homes but more would be saved. What was so traumatic about the foreclosure crisis was that some homeowners had signed up for “mortgages that were unsustainable.”

But the problem doesn’t simply involve mortgages in default. Meeks charged that senior citizens were encouraged to agree to costly and unnecessary home repairs and the debt was now jeopardizing the ownership of properties. “It’s an unfortunate situation,” added Meeks.

That was why he is undertaking an awareness campaign to highlight the housing scams that are hurting hardworking middle class families who need financial education to reduce fraudulent foreclosure activities now taking place.

Brokers, attorneys, home repair contractors and others were all preying on people, charged Meeks, McDermott and church leaders in Queens.

Also accused of using fraud and other tactics to take advantage of Caribbean and African- American homeowners was First Republic Bank on New York’s Jericho Turnpike, which has laid off its staff and closed its doors. It is facing multiple lawsuits alleging fraud, while state officials are moving to take away its license and recover as much as $16 million.

That brings us back to Edie and Souvenir, both of whom praise Meeks, CWE and Money Watch for their rescue mission.

“Thank God for the Congressman and Money Watch,” said Edie.

Souvenir said that without the help he received from the Initiative, he would be in even more serious financial trouble.

The Congressman said he was working with New York Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) and New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson to aid more homeowners and reduce foreclosures. “Senator Smith and Comptroller Thomson are two of my colleagues who are involved with us on this vital effort,” Meeks said.