To tackle the issue of affordable housing, the latest New Yorker of the Week aims to help the 30,000 homeowners in the city at risk of losing their home. NY1's John Schiumo filed the following report.

She's a successful real estate broker based in Brooklyn, but Trisha Ocona doesn't just focus on closing lucrative deals. 

"When you look around the community, we see homes that are boarded up, that are abandoned," Ocona says. "We see people losing their wealth. We see people who used to own homes now are homeless because they had nowhere to turn."

It's her mission to become someone they trust.

Trisha educates struggling homeowners who are at risk of foreclosure, New Yorkers doing everything they can to save their American Dream. She does it for free. 

"A lot of people are uneducated about real estate," she says. "And home ownership is so important. Real estate is so important. It's where we go for our place of worship. It's where we go to work. It's where we tuck our kids in at night. So without it, then where do we go?"

Since 2005, Trisha has counseled dozens of New Yorkers across the city on different housing issues, advising them on loans, finding legal representation, safeguarding against predators, and maybe most importantly, giving them hope. 

"Trisha is trying to work with me. It's coming from the heart, and I'm looking forward," says homeowner Janice Prince.

"Yes, something has gone wrong, but all is not lost," says homeowner Maxine Acosta-Belfon. "You could regain whatever you think you may lose, but you just have to know how to go about it."

A life lesson learned thanks to Trisha. 

"I want to leave it for my children," says homeowner Bentley Cotterel. "They'll have a better life. Not only for themselves, but also for the generation to come." 

"People deserve to have their home saved because they're working hard," Ochoa says. "They just don’t understand. They just trusted the wrong people. But these people get up. The people that I work with, they get up every single day and they work."

So, for building up fellow New Yorkers' knowledge on preventing foreclosures, Trisha Ocona is the latest New Yorker of the Week.