In October, Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart made national news when he decided to temporarily suspend evictions from foreclosed rental properties.
Last week, he shared his perspective with the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, which was hearing testimony in support of legislation to help homeowners avoid losing their homes.
Dart suspended foreclosures in Cook County for one week in October to establish new regulations to protect homeowners and renters. He said the October moratorium delayed about 500 scheduled foreclosures. Dart's office has only carried out three foreclosures since the suspension ended.
Dart, who is believed to be the first sheriff of a major metropolitan area to take such broad measures to prevent foreclosures, said in a statement that he did so in response to a growing number of evictions that involve renters. He said in an interview after his appearance in Washington, D.C., that existing laws permitted evictions without enough investigation or adequate notice to homeowners or tenants.
"I was seeing firsthand horrific injustice going on right in front of me," Dart said. "It was that obvious, that blatant, and to just hide behind a piece of paper, a court order, is just wrong."
Dart's testimony to the U.S. Senate was in support of the Helping Families Save Their Homes in Bankruptcy Act, federal legislation sponsored by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. that would help at-risk homeowners keep their houses. The federal Emergency Economic Stabilization Act does not do enough to help families facing foreclosure, Durbin said in a statement.
"Virtually every economist agrees that the financial crisis will not diminish, and the economy will not begin to recover, until we address the root cause of the problem: the failed mortgage market," Durbin said in a statement. "We also have an obligation to make sure that taxpayer money is spent responsibly and that the American people see a return on this investment."
Durbin's bill would require federal agencies and some private lenders to restructure home loans and would allow bankruptcy judges to modify mortgage terms. A Durbin spokesman said the senator has been working to pass the bill for more than a year, but that he is "confident" it will be passed at the beginning of the next Congress.
