NEW YORK - Clarence Hamer doesn’t expect to hang on to his house much longer. His downstairs tenant owes him nearly $50,000 in back rent on the four-bedroom duplex in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Without those rental payments, Hamer has been unable to pay the thousands he owes in heat, hot water and property taxes. In September, after exhausting his life savings, he stopped paying the mortgage, too. “I don’t have any corporate backing or any other type of insurance,” said Hamer, a 46-year-old landlord who works for the city of New York. “All I have is my home, and it seems...