Poughkeepsie copes with housing fallout

N.Y. town's woes signal rising foreclosures spreading to more U.S. regions
By John W. Schoen
Senior Producer
Wed., June. 25, 2008

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - For Al Russo, a 30-year-old husband and father of two young boys, the trouble started about two years ago, when the shoe repair business he inherited from his parents hit a seasonal slow patch during the winter.

He’d set aside money to carry him over — just as his parents had taught him. But he had to use that money to pay for his mother’s funeral and soon began falling behind on his mortgage payments. To try to head off a foreclosure on the house he and his wife bought in 2005, he filed for bankruptcy this year at the federal court here on Main Street, representing himself. the rest

Slideshow: "I hate to leave everything behind"