City Bar Justice Center’s Consumer Bankruptcy Project and Homeowner Stability Project Merge to Enhance Economic Security Advocacy

CONTACT
Anthony Johnson 
City Bar Justice Center 
anthonyjohnson@nycbar.org 

New York, December 11, 2025 – The City Bar Justice Center, a pro bono legal services affiliate of the New York City Bar Association, is excited to announce the merger of its Consumer Bankruptcy Project and Homeowner Stability Project into a new Homeowner and Consumer Debt Advocacy Project to increase support for New Yorkers of limited means seeking a fresh start towards greater economic security.

The merged program will be led by Edward Mostoller, who currently directs the Homeowner Stability Project. In addition to his successful homeowner advocacy, Mostoller brings prior experience with consumer bankruptcy and finance matters.

“I look forward to building on the successes of my former colleague, longtime Justice Center attorney Ramona Morel, who expanded our consumer bankruptcy practice and its ‘fresh start’ clinics to also address education debt relief,” Mostoller said. “As we usher in a new era for the City Bar Justice Center’s comprehensive homeowner assistance and consumer debt support efforts, joining these two projects allows us to enhance services delivery in legal practice areas that often overlap.”

Simone Haines and Emily Tran will continue as staff attorneys with the combined project, focusing on homeowner matters such as foreclosure defense, tangled title and estate resolution, and deed theft and property scam prevention. Senior project coordinator Jennifer Arocha will shift her responsibilities from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project to the new project’s homeowner stabilization efforts. Two new hires – an additional staff attorney and a project coordinator – will round out the Homeowner and Consumer Debt Advocacy Project’s Chapter 7 bankruptcy and education debt relief work, including supporting the Justice Center’s valued partnership with New York’s Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program. (EDCAP).

“A core priority of the City Bar Justice Center’s current strategic plan – Honoring Our Roots, Revisioning Our Commitments – is to tackle the greatest unmet needs in our community,” said Kurt M. Denk, Executive Director of the City Bar Justice Center. “Restructuring some of our existing work to launch the Homeowner and Consumer Debt Advocacy Project reflects that commitment, and we’re fortunate to have talented team members whose professional experience and client-centered focus will help us synergize existing efforts as well as open new avenues to meet underserved New Yorkers’ urgent economic security needs.”

If you are interested in learning more or volunteering with the Homeowner and Consumer Debt Advocacy Project, please visit the City Bar Justice Center’s website.

New Yorkers seeking homeowner legal assistance and consumer and education debt relief options can contact the City Bar Justice Center’s Legal Hotline at 212-626-7383 to speak with a trained attorney. The Legal Hotline can also be accessed through an online application portal.

About the City Bar Justice Center 

The City Bar Justice Center furthers access to justice by addressing unmet civil legal needs of New Yorkers struggling with poverty and other systemic socioeconomic barriers. The Justice Center’s dozen civil justice projects are led by a staff of dedicated attorneys and support professionals who provide high-quality civil legal services through brief advice and information, referrals, and both limited scope and extended representation that benefit more than 27,000 New Yorkers each year who cannot afford to hire counsel. www.citybarjusticecenter.org