The Evictors: A Day In The Life

The following assorted links are to stories covering those tasked with the job of conducting evictions:

• Orlando, Florida: A day in the life...the ‘eviction lady’. Most residents of Orange County know Peggy Leonard as the “eviction lady.” She starts her days early, armed with dog biscuits for abandoned canines, hand sanitizer and flea spray for the grimy, foul-smelling homes she often encounters, and weapons including a gun and mace in case things get out of control. “It actually is a pretty dangerous job,” she said standing to the side of a door she is about to break into. “You never know if there is someone waiting on the other side with a gun.”

• Abingdon, Virginia: Evictors say economy making already-tough job even harder. It’s the hardest part of his job: Telling those who’ve fallen on hard times they’ve got 72 hours to get out of their house. Washington County Sheriff’s Lt. Mike Olinger does it 75 to 80 times a year, normally. But at the current pace, he said, that number will be higher this year.

• Las Vegas, Nevada: Henderson officer sees families grieve over evictions. In their Henderson office an hour before going out on the eviction, [Henderson County Constable Earl] Mitchell, [his deputy director Steve] Kilgore and Deputy Constable Dan McKeaney said they never know how people are going to react when faced with losing their home. "It can get highly emotional," Kilgore said. "I could see one of these situations blowing up and many people getting hurt."

• Chicago, Illinois: A Personal Look at Foreclosures, By the Sheriff Who Won’t Do Them. At Newsweek, Sheriff Thomas Dart of Cook County in Chicago offers an unusually personal look at the process of throwing someone out of their home in a foreclosure eviction, something he still often refuses to do. Dart stopped doing evictions after discovering too many instances of owners with no notification by the courts or renters with no idea an eviction was coming. That problem was supposed to be addressed by a ban on evicting renters, enacted by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in January. The problem, Dart says, is that the ban isn’t always followed as of yet. Also, not everyone has a Fannie or Freddie loan.

• Lucas County, Ohio: Lucas County Sheriff's Deputy sees human side of foreclosure evictions. A self-described optimist with a cheery smile and a voice that can border on perky, Deputy Sherry Stearns, 45, is the lone sheriff's deputy assigned to oversee foreclosure evictions. Deputy Stearns has encountered lots of eye-openers in the 10 months she's dislodged people from their homes. Among them: A suicidal homeowner; an elderly widow, unfamiliar with bill-paying, whose soldier son returned home from Iraq the day of her eviction; an older couple shocked to learn of a son's failed promise to make their mortgage payments, and far too many abandoned pets.

• Miwaukee, Wisconsin: Foreclosure Detectives Clear Out Local Homes (After Multiple Warnings, Detectives Come To Clean House). It happens every day in the Milwaukee area; homes are foreclosed and families have to move out and cannot come back.
  Foreclosed families eventually get a final warning from the bank, but they have to move, and by law, the sheriff moves in with legal muscle and a moving truck. It's a day detectives don't look forward to.

Go here and go here for other posts on the encounters of police and sheriff's deputies carrying out home evictions. DeputyEvictionTheta