Consumer

Popular Pets

Top 10 Smartest and Dumbest Dog Breeds More

Zoo Babies: Cuteness Unleashed Westminster Dog Show 2008 Top Ten Miami Dog Breeds Halloween Costume Ideas For Your Pet

| Digg | Facebook | E-mail

Close WindowE-mail This Page

Foreclosures And Evictions: The Price Families Pay

Required fields are marked with an asterisk(*)

---

• Recipient E-mail:* 
• • Your Name:* 
  • Your E-mail:* 
• Add a Message:
•   Send me a copy of this e-mail.

• Type the characters in this picture:* Click here to refresh with new letters

---

The information you provide will be used only to send the requested e-mail and will not be used to send any other e-mail communications. Read more in our Privacy Policy

Send E-mail

| Print

Apr 23, 2008 11:50 pm US/Eastern

Foreclosures And Evictions: The Price Families Pay

About 36 families in Mi ami-Dade County recently were evicted from their homes due to foreclosures. Some believe it puts an additional strain on law enforcement agencies who are in the unenviable position of putting people on the street. 

Tuesday morning on South Beach, where joggers bask in another day in paradise.  But only steps away from the sand, the real world sets in.

"We're here for a court ordered eviction," said a Miami-Dade police officer to a family who has become victim to the mortgage meltdown. 

Officer Albert Fernandez does about a dozen evictions a day with no end in sight.  "We have a lot more work right now.  It's getting harder and harder. As you can see a lot of people are losing their homes." 

Foreclosure filings are up 400% from 2006, affecting every price range.  When CBS4 David Sutta accompanied Officer Fernandez, there were three-bedroom homes in Miami Lakes that were left in very poor condition. 

"The way they leave these houses,  this is a prime example," the officer said.

Fernandez finds many homes trashed, stripped of anything of value. 

The homeowners have usually left, but every now and then the officers get "the worst case senario" - children.

He explained, "We feel bad when we have kids.  We all have kids, everybody on the squad has kids. You feel for them, because you know the parents they can live anywhere, but the kids they have to go where the parents take them."

With every lock the locksmiths pop,  a realtor reluctantly observes and awaits the new keys to yet another listing.

"It's kind of sad to see people losing their properties," said Carlos Mandiola, a realtor with Coldwell Banker.

But the transition then begins where the home is turned into another home for sale.

Officer Fernandez added, "It's kind of tough because remember these people didn't want to be evicted.  These people didn't want to lose their homes so obviously something led to this." 

It is a sobering reality check on just how fragile South Florida's community has become.

"This can happen to any of us, any one of us," mentioned Officer Fernandez.

It's easy to rattle off the numbers of foreclosures, but when each foreclosure eviction represents a family, the numbers are daunting. Thirty-six evictions a day means 180 families a week, or 720 families a month who are now homeless.  

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)