Gerson, of Coast to Coast Legal Aid, which represents low- and moderate-income Broward County residents, is defending Marie Ginise in foreclosure proceedings. Gerson says there are hundreds of seniors like Ginise who are behind on their mortgage payments — with no hope of catching up. “They get further and further behind.”

The hardest hit: low and middle-income seniors. According to AARP, older middle-class borrowers with incomes ranging from $50,000 to $124,999 accounted for 53 percent of foreclosures in 2011. Borrowers with incomes below $50,000 made up 32 percent of all foreclosures in that age group.

“There are limited things they can do” in the case of a foreclosure, Gerson says. “If they’re lucky, maybe they move in with a relative or rent a room somewhere. But most fear that they’re going to be stuck in some institution at the end of their years.”

Though she’s hopeful that the lender will reconsider the foreclosure, Ginise worries about where she will live if the lender refuses to modify her loan. She had already asked the company for a break when her husband got sick in 2007. At the time, the lender agreed to lower monthly payments but did not reduce the loan. When her husband died in May 2009, the lender demanded she pay what was owed over the two years of reduced payments. She couldn’t afford the sum then, and she can’t afford it now. Meanwhile, the 32-year-old manufactured home the couple bought for $125,000 seven years ago is worth just over $40,000 – if she can even sell it. “I’m making myself sick over this,” she sighs.

Myriam Rodgers can relate. She and her then-husband downsized to a townhouse in West Kendall in 2006. At the time, making the mortgage payments wasn’t a problem. “We thought we were doing the right thing. We didn’t want to have to take care of the yard and the pool,” she said.

It didn’t work out that way. After a divorce and the death of her mother, who helped with the mortgage, Rodgers negotiated a loan modification that allowed her to pay interest only — 2 percent during the first two years and then 4 percent over the next two years. In the fifth year, the negotiated terms required her to start paying principle and interest at 5.75 percent. As the fifth year approaches, she realizes she can’t afford the payment on her Social Security and part-time job earnings.

The value of the home has dropped, too. The townhouse she bought for $300,000 is now worth about $180,000.

“I don’t see a future with this house,” says Rodgers, 66. “But where will I go?”

Marta L. Carreno, 70, managed to rent an apartment in June after the bank started foreclosure proceedings on her Century Village condo in Pembroke Pines. She was lucky to find a place. “I know the manager, so I got a break. If I didn’t know anybody, I would have had a hard time,” she says. “My credit isn’t good.”

Her dream retirement has turned into a nightmare, she adds. The two-bedroom condo she bought in 2005 for $230,000 is worth less than half that now. Even before her husband, Miguel Angel, died in 2010, the couple had asked for a loan modification. Now without his pension or Social Security, there’s no way she can afford to keep it. Instead of fighting the foreclosure, she has decided to let the bank take over her property.

“I live one day at a time,” she says, her voice wavering with emotion. “I never thought I would end up this way. I’ve lost everything.”