PARK SLOPE, Brooklyn (WABC) — Ray Cortez, 90, has lived in a Park Slope brownstone for over half a century, but now he’s fighting to stay in his home after becoming a victim of fraud.

He raised his three children in this house and expected to spend his final days there as well.

Instead, he has to go to the housing court, where he is threatened with immediate eviction because another owner is registered in the land register of the house.

Cortez’s son, Ray Jr., has helped his father navigate the legal quagmire that he says is the result of a decades-old fraud.

“You know, it’s heartbreaking. It’s been too long that he’s had to carry this with him. It was devastating,” Ray Jr. said.

Cortez bought the house for $20,000 in 1969, long before the million-dollar condos were built and the Barclays Center moved in.

Now the house is valued at nearly $3 million.

Cortez’s attorney said this type of fraud is common in gentrified neighborhoods.

“If you go into certain neighborhoods that are predominantly populated by people of color, from Prospect Heights to East New York and then southeast Queens, everyone on every block knows someone who has been a victim of deed theft or real estate fraud,” said his attorney, Bill Lienhard.

The fraud that Cortez fell victim to is complicated, but the complication itself is part of the fraud.

In 2006, seeking money for renovations, Cortez was persuaded to sign over the deed to his home to a con artist who had previously served a prison sentence.

A deed was issued in Cortez’s name and notarized by a corrupt lawyer, but was never registered.

The scammer took out a loan of nearly $700,000 on the house and the bank eventually sold it at foreclosure for $2 million.

Cortez did not learn of this until a decade later.

Now his neighbors, who have known Cortez for almost 40 years, are supporting him.

“The perfect neighbor. All of us on this street are just horrified. I mean, we can’t imagine what this must be doing to him emotionally,” said neighbor Tom Harriman.

There is a division in the Attorney General’s Office that deals with this type of real estate fraud and is investigating the Cortez case.

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