“We will no longer be a party to something that’s so unjust.”

(noon. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

 

“We will no longer be a party to something that’s so unjust,” Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said in a news conference on Wednesday.

Chicago’s Daily Herald reports that Dart cited the “economic crisis” as the reason he has called a halt to evictions until lenders can prove the foreclosed home’s occupant has been notified.

“We have to be sure that when we are doing this – and we are destroying some people’s lives – we better be darned sure we’re talking about the right people,” Dart was quoted saying in the AP story.

Dart explained that he ordered his deputies to stop evicting people from homes in foreclosure because many of the people ordered evicted are renters who have paid their rent and have done nothing wrong. He explained that tenants with their rent fully paid, go to work in the morning and then return to discover they have been evicted. The authorities cart the possessions of renters of foreclosed homes out to the curbside and by the time they return home, everything has disappeared.

“The meager possessions they have are gone,” he said. “This is happening too often.”

“You are talking about a lot of people in rental situations living paycheck to paycheck,” he said. “To think they are sitting on a pool of money for an up-front deposit, security deposit, is foolishness.”

Before the suspension, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office was on pace to conduct 4,500 to 4,700 foreclosures evictions by the end of 2008. Nearly triple the number of foreclosure evictions of 2006, which was at 1,771. The suspension is “expected temporarily to save 400 to 500 people from eviction a month,” according to the Daily Herald.

In 2006, there were 18,916 foreclosures in Cook County. 32,269 foreclosures were filed in 2007. This year, 43,000 foreclosures are expected to be filed. Dart explained to the NY Times that —

“It started with just a couple cases like that, but they kept multiplying… Just in the past month, about a third of the people we were asked to evict were under very questionable circumstances. It got to the point that enough was enough.”

Under Dart’s foreclosure eviction suspension, banks seeking an eviction will now be required to provide the sheriff’s office “a court affidavit that proves the home’s occupant is either the owner or has been properly notified of the foreclosure proceedings.” The suspension only applies to properties in foreclosure.

“Under a new Chicago law, renters are entitled to a 90-day grace period, starting at the time a foreclosure sale is confirmed, before they can be evicted.” Plus, according to the AP, “Illinois law requires that renters be notified that their residence is in foreclosure and they will be evicted in 120 days, but Dart indicated that the law has been routinely ignored.” Banks are not notifying tenants according to Dart.

“They just go out and get an order the next day and throw these people’s names on there,” Dart said. “Whether they (tenants) have been notified, God only knows.”

Not surprisingly, bankers have not reacted with approval to the suspension. The Illinois Bankers Association strongly condemned Dart’s action. The Daily Herald quotes their written statement in response:

“By ignoring the law and his legal responsibilities, he is carrying out ‘vigilantism’ at the highest level of an elected official,” the statement read. “This cannot be acceptable to anyone, regardless of their viewpoints.”

An attorney has already this week asked a judge to hold Dart in contempt for failing to evict tenants of a foreclosed property. The judge denied the request according to the sheriff’s office as reported by the AP. Dart believes the law is on his side regarding the suspension.

“My job as sheriff is to follow court orders, absolutely,” he said. “But I’m also in charge of making sure justice is being done here and it is clear that justice is not being done here.”

In a press release by the Sheriff’s office, Dart said:

“These mortgage companies only see pieces of paper, not people, and don’t care who’s in the building… They simply want their money and don’t care who gets hurt along the way. On top of it all, they want taxpayers to fund their investigative work for them. We’re not going to do their jobs for them anymore. We’re just not going to evict innocent tenants. It stops today.”

These evictions have been devastating to the families renting foreclosed properties and they have also taken an emotional toll on the staff of the Cook County sheriff department. Dart explained to the NY Times:

“It’s one of most gut-wrenching things we do, seeing little children put out on the street with their possessions. And the hard part is that the parent played by all the rules, and they’re being traumatized.”

I think that as this housing crisis has grown, the concern has been about the property over the welfare of the people impacted by the mortgage meltdown. I believe that Dart has made the right decision and I hope the law will justify his action. We must begin to put people before property.

 

^{Hat tip to RiaD for calling my attention to this story.}