BOSTON -- In 2005, Flossie Parker, 64, refinanced her Dorchester home with an adjustable rate loan to make improvements to it. When the higher interest rate kicked in last fall, her payments went from $2,000 to $3,000 a month. Unable to keep up with the payments, Parker, disabled by a stroke, got a foreclosure notice.

Homeowners Feel Foreclosure Pinch

"I feel very bad. More depressed than I have ever been. Because this is what I call home and I feel it's being snatched away from me," said Parker.

Her story was one of several heard at the Statehouse on Monday morning, when the Massachusetts Alliance Against Predatory Lending announced support for three bills aimed at helping victims of foreclosure.

The proposed measures call for a six-month moratorium on foreclosures involving subprime mortgages. They also offer protection for tenants being evicted from foreclosed properties and they give homeowners their day in court to contest foreclosures.

Inell Mendez is a tenant facing eviction through no fault of her own.

"I thought the older I'd get, the better it would get, but it's not. It's getting worse," said Mendez.

In January of this year, foreclosures in Massachusetts increased 186 percent from the same period last year.

"The tsunami is happening. It's slow moving but it will wipe out large sections of our communities," said Representative Elizabeth Malia, a democrat from Boston who is co-sponsoring the legislation.

Newscenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported that this summer, when a large number of subprime loans are scheduled to re-set, it is expected there will be at least 50,000 more foreclosures across Massachusetts. That is why backers of these three bills are pushing hard to make them law, before the end of of the legislative session in July.