The 40 or so protesters marching through East Liberty yesterday morning traveled only five blocks. But they're hoping that the effort will be a step toward stopping the foreclosures that are throwing people out of their homes.

The Allegheny County chapter of ACORN -- the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- used the case of a local family to draw attention to the plight of people in need of mortgage relief.

ACORN members, wearing T-shirts and carrying signs, marched from the group's headquarters on Penn Avenue to a National City bank branch on North Highland Avenue and disrupted business there for about 10 minutes by blowing whistles and chanting "Criminal offenders, predatory lenders."

The group peacefully dispersed when police arrived and asked the protesters to leave. No one was arrested.

ACORN spokeswoman Jennifer England said National City bank was targeted on behalf of the family of steelworker Shawn Abbott, who faces losing his Ambridge home because he cannot make the escalating mortgage payments.

"When he got the loan three years ago, it was an adjustable rate mortgage and they knew that and they were told it might go up," Ms. England said. "But they were also told it might go down. And they expected [any change] would be within a few percentage points."

The mortgage loan -- taken out with First Franklin Bank, which was then owned by National City -- originally cost the Abbotts $340 a month.

"Within three years, it's over $1,200 a month, not including taxes and fees," Ms. England said. "And he makes about $2,000 a month."

Ms. England said "because National City owned First Franklin when a lot of these loans were made, they have an obligation to help these homeowners renegotiate the terms of their loans so they have fair loans and don't lose their homes."

National City employees said they could not comment on the protest.

Despite the Abbotts' failure to find a solution yesterday, Ms. England called the protest a success because it helped spread awareness of the problem -- and the work toward a solution.

"It's not just this family, but many families like them," she said. "These are working people. They're not trying to get out of their loans. They have been put in a bad situation by a bank that has behaved fairly unethically."

ACORN is a national nonprofit group that provides free counseling to low- and moderate-income home buyers. Ms. England said the local chapter's next effort will be a town hall meeting with Sheriff William P. Mullen at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Teamsters Temple at 4701 Butler St. in Lawrenceville.

"We're going to ask Sheriff Mullen to stop foreclosures for six months on all owner-occupied homes so families have a chance to negotiate a settlement with their bank and save their homes," Ms. England said. "It doesn't help anybody when families are put out of their homes. It's actually bad for all the neighborhood. When houses are foreclosed upon, all the property values actually go down."

Ms. England said ACORN representatives would be at the meeting to take information from homeowners seeking help with their mortgage payments.