Jan. 14--Yadira Quinones of Brentwood said the fear of losing her $390,000 home to foreclosure keeps her from sleeping and eating because her mortgage lender refuses to work out a deal with her.

"I don't want to lose my house," Quinones, 53, said on the verge of tears.

She was one of about 50 local members of a community advocacy group -- ACORN -- that disrupted yesterday's auction of foreclosed houses in Nassau at the State Supreme Court building in Mineola.

ACORN leaders said they were protesting predatory lending and the foreclosure and sale of homes that County Clerk Maureen O'Connell said has jumped in Nassau from 1,400 in 2007 to 2,629 in 2008.

Suffolk figures were 1,061 in 2007 and 2,097 through November 2008, said county spokesman Dan Aug.

Of ACORN, Dan Bagnuola, a courts spokesman, said, "They could not remain standing, after bidding, so they were asked to sit down or step out."

While they left peacefully they also did it loudly, shouting "stop the auction now." Then they went to the south side of the building, where they chanted and marched on the steps before some short speeches.

Thirty-seven houses sold.

Outside, Quinones said she has been a clinical consultant at Stony Brook Hospital for 11 years and works other jobs such as cleaning offices. "I was doing fine until my mother in Panama needed a heart transplant and my car broke down," she said. "I got behind in my payments, and the mortgage people refused to work something out with me."

Anthony Dawo, 56, of Hempstead, and Melford Everett, 60, of Westbury, were also there.

Dawo, a security consultant, said he lost his house in October after being out of a job for some months last year and was there hoping "to help save others from a like fate."

Everett, a retired accountant, said he is not in foreclosure, but fears it could happen when his adjustable interest rate more than doubles in 2011 on his refinanced mortgage.

"I didn't even know about it being an adjustable rate," Everett said. "I found it hidden in the small print."

Suzanne Gray, 31, said her parents' house in Uniondale would have been on yesterday's auction list, "but we were able to reach an agreement with the bank just yesterday."

Pete Nagy, a local ACORN leader, said the group's mortgage counseling service was able to help Gray's parents.

Supreme Mathematics, of Hempstead, a member of the group, condemned predatory lending and vowed to return again to protest at the auction.

Joining ACORN outside was Doug Mayers, the head of the Freeport-Roosevelt NAACP, and a few others, with yellow signs that said: "Restructure loans; don't repossess houses."

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