Congress Consults Sheriff Dart On Foreclosures

Bob Roberts Reporting

CHICAGO (WBBM) -- Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart went to Capitol Hill Wednesday to argue for legislation that would slow down the pace of housing foreclosures.

Dart told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee that he feels the sorriest for renters who are current in their payments, but face eviction because their landlords are in default.

"It's heartbreaking," Durbin said after Dart testified. "Many of these people never saw this coming."

Dart said, despite a sharp increase in eviction requests, his deputies have put only three families on the streets since he persuaded the court system to give renters caught in foreclosures more time to relocate.

"The numbers are just getting staggering," Dart said of the eviction requests.

Dart said he continues to get notices of contempt proceedings from mortgage lenders who want quicker evictions.

"I feel very confident that we're doing the right thing and that I feel I'm on firm legal ground that under anyone's interpretation of the Constitution that you cannot take property, cannot throw people out of their property if there is not due process," he said.

Despite that, he said making mortgage lenders jump through hoops locally to obtain evictions is not the answer and would prefer action in Washington to stem the crisis now.

"It looks as if it's going to have to be taken up in the next administration because President Bush is not in favor of it," he said. "The only way we're going to get out in front of this is from a bankruptcy angle."

Durbin said, in addition to those renters caught by their landlords' defaults, he wants to help those who were misled into taking on mortgages they could not afford.

But those who speculated in the real estate market, hoping to make a financial killing, won't find an ally in Durbin.

"I have no sympathy for (them)," he said

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