There is the letter of the law and sometimes social conscience can supersed the letter of the law. In this case, the Chicago Sheriff’s Department has suspended all efforts to evict renters from housing where the mortgage had reached foreclosure. According to the article on Chicago’s CBS Channel 2 News, Sheriff Tom Dart feels his first priority is to see that those renting apartments in these foreclosed properties are protected from eviction.
Instead of throwing renters out on the street, he is giving them four months to find another place to live. Most renters, he feels, pay their rent, never miss the payments, and don’t deserve to be evicted because the landlord couldn’t meet his mortgage. Of course the Illinois Bankers Association and, I’m sure, a heap of landlords are angry at Sheriff Tom for not enforcing the law.
But perhaps Sheriff Tom realizes a higher law, and in an era of venality and insensitivity he choose to be fair to people. It’s refreshing. As for those who do not pay their rent, they are evicted. Sheriff Tom is on pace to conduct some 4,500 mortgage foreclosure evictions this year. In 2006 he conducted what now seems like a mere 1,771 evictions. Times change. And not always for the better.
As a company that, along with pre-employment screening, provides credit reports and eviction reports to landlords, we can still recognize the logic of the Sheriff’s decision. In these dire times, as we have just found out, not all rules and regulations work as they should Many are inapproriate for the conditions at hand.
A man with a sense of the law, but a sense of fairness. Way to go, Sheriff Tom.
