Dart, judges meet over eviction reform plans

Sheriff offers plans to change process

By Azam Ahmed | Chicago Tribune reporter

October 10, 2008

A day after announcing he would no longer evict people from foreclosed homes, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart met Thursday with two county judges who oversee foreclosure proceedings to discuss reforming how evictions are handled.

At the hourlong meeting with Judge Dorothy Kinnaird, who presides over the Chancery Court, and the supervising judge of the foreclosure section, Lewis Nixon, Dart asked the judiciary to make lenders warn tenants when their landlord's building falls into foreclosure. Sheriff's deputies are often saddled with that responsibility, he said.

"We offered them a handful of proposals that put the necessary safeguard in place to protect ourselves and the tenants," said Steve Patterson, a Dart spokesman. "We left the meeting hopeful that this could be resolved shortly."

He said the judges plan to review the proposals with the state's attorney's office.

The vow to stop evicting residents has prompted praise and criticism of Dart, who discussed his apparently unprecedented action with national news outlets discussing his apparently unprecedented action. Many organizations praised Dart as heroic, while others questioned the motivation of his announcement.

"The refusal to [evict tenants] in the case of valid eviction orders would not only place Dart's office in contempt of court, but also place at risk the willingness of lenders to underwrite loans in Cook County," a statement Thursday from the Mortgage Bankers Association of Illinois said.