Mortgage industry takes human toll

Michelle LaPiana got into the mortgage business 17 years ago to help people avoid bait and switch schemes which boost closing costs — something she had experienced herself. In the wake of the subprime collapse, the former president of the Miami chapter of the Florida Association of Mortgage Brokers and former subprime account executive is broke and in foreclosure. LaPiana says that a wave of opportunists hijacked her profession and ran it in into the ground. Now, because of the stigma attached to the world of subprime lending, employment prospects in the field seem dim. Reports of felons having flooded the business during the boom years have not helped.