by MarkJ » Fri 03 Apr 2009, 07:57:08
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ReverseEngineer', 'P')erhaps as of today the local Gestapo in your area is still kicking people out of foreclosed on homes,
Yes local sheriffs departments continue evicting people like clockwork.. They just had a recent story about it in The Albany Times Union.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')url=http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=782510]That Dreaded Knock On The Door[/url]
ALBANY The toddler, a cheerful girl of about 3, shrieked happily and shuffled in white socks down the warm, dark hallway while the adults in the house hastily packed everything they could carry.
She returned encased in a pink parka, still smiling, still looking for her shoes.
"We have nowhere to go," said a woman, perhaps 35, who was packing and holding the leash of a large, docile Rottweiler.
"The worst is when you have kids involved," said Deputy Chad Hotaling, one of three Albany County sheriff's deputies who stood in the hallway. The deputies kept a close watch on the handful of adults moving from room to room and the time. There was a schedule to keep, and downstairs, a handyman was changing the locks.
"You see the kids there," Hotaling said, "and they don't know what's going on."
It was the seventh eviction of the day for the team, one of two working in Latham and Albany on a cold Friday in February, and the second in the same two-unit Orange Street building. .
As the economy continues to sputter, evictions court-ordered removal of people from their homes are up in some corners of the Capital Region and steady in others.
"It doesn't get any worse than the sheriff coming to your door and physically removing you from the property," said Wendy Wahlberg, deputy director of the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York. "It sort of brings up images of the movie 'The Grapes of Wrath.'"
Fortunately, the vast majority of local homeowners and renters facing eviction don't have to be removed buy the sheriffs departments. People move out willingly since they don't want to be forcefully removed, have their possessions tossed to the curb and be put out on the street like a dog with nowhere to go.
People facing eviction need time to find shelter, find homes for kids, find homes for pets, turn off phone/cable/internet/gas/electric/water/sewer, rent/borrow trucks/vans/trailers and time to sell, move or store possessions. Once they receive eviction notices, those without support of family & friends, or those without savings, assets, credit and sufficient income(s) generally seek public assistance help.
Since many evictions happen in the winter, people don't want to be out on the street without shelter. Since many city apartment dwellers don't drive, they don't even have a vehicle to provide temporary shelter.
Many people facing evictions relocate to regions with cheaper rents as well. For example, rents in my region are very high, vacancy is very low and tenant screening is tough due to the high amount of upper middle class, wealthy, tourists, seasonal residents, vacation home owners etc. We steer housing challenged renters to regions with more emergency shelters, welfare motels/hotels, low income rentals, subsidized housing etc.