Sheriff Tom Dart in Cook County, Ill., made news headlines after he placed a moratorium on foreclosure-related evictions Oct. 9. The struggle that pushed Dart to action, however, has not been given the credit it deserves.
|
Banks have been evicting thousands of renters whose landlords were defaulting on loans. In most cases, tenants had paid their rents in full and were not aware that the property had been foreclosed on.
The battle started earlier this summer for Diane Limas, Emily Burns, Esteban and Maria Cruz, Pedro Ramirez and Alma Aquino. The three residents of a building on North Spalding Avenue started receiving notices in their mailboxes that they had to move.
The Albany Park community group discovered that a businessman named Mihail Stancu had bought the building. Stancu filed the paperwork to convert all the units into condominiums behind the backs of the tenants. He took out home improvement loans on each unit totaling over $1 million once the units were converted, and then fled the country.
When the city of Chicago became aware of the swindle, they persuaded a judge to block all eviction proceedings until the mess was sorted out. Despite the judge’s orders, sheriff’s deputies showed up at one of the apartments and tried to evict the tenants. The tenants were able to resist deputies’ efforts to evict them.
After the deputies left, a group of residents marched down to the sheriff’s office to complain, but the sheriff was not there to hear their grievances. Much to their surprise, while they were preparing for a big fight with the sheriff’s office, they got word that Sheriff Tom Dart was going to put a stop to all foreclosure-related evictions and that he credited the group with making him aware of what was going on.
While most apartment buildings are foreclosed because the landlord cannot meet mortgage payments, it is estimated that there are as many as 200 fraudulent condo conversions now in foreclosure in Chicago.
Build a movement against foreclosures and evictions
Sheriff Tom Dart first announced that his office would stop carrying out evictions originating from mortgage foreclosures on Oct. 9. The moratorium would continue until lenders started providing proof that they have taken the steps necessary to identify who is living at an address and that those facing eviction receive proper notice. The move included all foreclosure evictions, not just apartment buildings.
Cook County, like many places around the country, is experiencing a severe mortgage crisis. The number of foreclosures in the county has risen steadily over the last three years from 18,916 in 2006 to more than 43,000 this year. The county is expected to evict people from 4,500 homes and apartments this year. In 2006, the number was 1,771.
The sheriff’s office reported that one-third of apartment evictions are served on tenants who have not been given notice. Under Illinois law, lenders are required to give a tenant 120 days to move after notification of a foreclosure.
Increasingly, sheriff’s deputies were arriving at an apartment to evict a tenant only to find that the name on the eviction notice did not match the person who was living there. They would discover that the tenant living at the apartment was a renter who had paid his or her rent in full, and had no idea that the building had been foreclosed.
Dart recently said at a press conference: “No matter how difficult they are, evictions are part of our job. What isn’t part of our job, however, is to carry out work on behalf of the multi-billion-dollar banks and mortgage industries.”
Dart should not be mistaken for a progressive. He never had any intention of continuing the badly needed moratorium on evictions for an extended period of time. Deputies continued evictions against renters who fell behind on their rent. With new measures in place requiring that banks prove they gave tenants adequate notice, evictions resumed Oct. 20.
No matter how Dart tries to reframe his role as a sheriff, resumption of foreclosures only reaffirms that his office exists precisely to carry out work on behalf of the multi-billion-dollar banks and mortgage industries.
The sheriff’s job is ultimately to protect the interests of the capitalists, not those of workers. It is important to note that, although the banks have been engaging in a massive assault on tenant’s rights by filing fraudulent eviction notices, the sheriff is not seeking to prosecute or penalize the banks.
The actions of the tenants in Chicago point the way out of the housing crisis for workers. United struggle can stop foreclosures and evictions. Workers should not have to pay for an economic crisis created by Wall Street. Not one person should be thrown out onto the street while Washington is giving billions of dollars to failing banks and their CEOs.
