Mortgage crisis robbing seniors of golden years

By Stephanie Armour
USA TODAY

Howard Weiss is 77 and scared.

This year, the semiretired distributor from Phoenix ran into financial problems and stopped making his mortgage payments. He was told his home was scheduled for a foreclosure auction in May.

So Weiss scraped together more than $2,000 to stave off the foreclosure. He's still trying to figure out if he can get a mortgage modification so he can afford his home.

"This is the biggest mess I've had in my life," Weiss says. "I could break down and cry. I was about to lose everything. I've been through (the Korean War), through a lot of crises. Now I've turned everything over to the Lord. ... I'm so stressed this is going to kill me." the rest