South Florida, Eviction Spares Few

By DAMIEN CAVE
Published: June 4, 2008
MIAMI — In a decade handling evictions for the Miami-Dade County Police Department, Albert Fernandez has run across a middle-class father bankrupted by his daughter’s cancer treatment; an old woman scammed by a gambling husband; and countless families perpetually on the edge of poverty.

Eric Thayer for The New York Times
Albert Fernandez of the Miami-Dade police serving eviction papers last month in Miami. “People of all walks of life are getting evicted,” Officer Fernandez said.



Officer Fernandez with a locksmith, Eddie Afraf, in Miami. Banks have hired companies that specialize in evictions.
But he has never turned out as many people as he does now.

It used to take a day or two for officers to get to an address after tenants received a notice to leave. Now, with evictions up by roughly a third over last year, Miami-Dade’s backlog is around two weeks, sometimes longer.

“It is what it is,” Officer Fernandez said, looking at a list of addresses about to be emptied. “People of all walks of life are getting evicted.”

If South Florida is a barometer for the housing crisis and the economy, the forecast does not look good. Like other areas nationwide, evictions are rising throughout the state, clogging county courts and spawning a boom in companies that specialize in “eviction services” like moving furniture to the curb.

In the first three months of this year, Broward County tallied 3,043 eviction requests — more than it has received in the same period since at least 1999, and an increase of 54 percent over last year. In Miami-Dade, landlords filed for 4,726 evictions from January through April, up 1,157 from the first four months of last year.

Much of the rise comes from foreclosures, which in Miami-Dade County jumped to 311 in January 2008 from 38 in January 2007, but more renters and business owners are also finding themselves unable to pay the bills.

In many cases, one failure leads to another. Owners, banks, renters and developers have become like prisoners attached by ankle chains: when one falls, the others slip too.

Visits to nearly a dozen properties with Officer Fernandez and his partner, Officer Charles Veiga, included several stops in which both renters and owners seemed to be struggling.

Around noon, the officers pulled into a comfortable development in Doral, where a young woman in a red shirt could be seen carrying large garbage bags out of a second-story apartment.

The woman, who identified herself only as Maria, said that she was an accountant, a mother of three, and that she was being evicted because of a double whammy: she had fallen behind in paying the $1,450 a month in rent and her landlord could no longer afford the mortgage and condominium fees, pushing the property toward foreclosure.

The problems, she said, began about a year ago when the estranged father of her children lost his job at a mortgage company and stopped paying regular child support.

“The situation is bad for everyone — me, the landlord, the father of my kids too,” said Maria, 36, who would only give her first name because she feared her new landlord would discover her financial troubles. She added that after nearly a decade in Miami, she had started asking relatives in Guatemala for help.

“It’s ridiculous to have to move money from my country to here,” she said. “This is not how it’s supposed to be.”

At another apartment building in an older, poorer area, the owner, Concepcion Rosado, 71, arrived and confronted a couple that had stopped paying the rent several months ago after four years in the apartment.

Tears streamed down the cheeks of Alisa Soriano, 48, as she begged for mercy in a dark, sparsely furnished living room. The rent was $640 a month. She said she would find work soon and so would her boyfriend, a carpenter who stood beside her, silent, with paint splotched on his jeans.

“I won’t fail you,” Ms. Soriano told her landlord in Spanish, between wails. “I won’t fail you. I won’t fail you.”

Mrs. Rosado nodded. In her hand, she held the tenants’ final effort: $300 in cash and a check for $700. “It’s just that I have to pay taxes,” she said. “I have to pay insurance. It’s very complicated.”

Ms. Soriano cried. “Ay, Dios mío,” Mrs. Rosado said.

And all you nonbelievers that say this isn't really happening all over the US can take that and shove it...

And to all those that want to come to the US thinking they can work to get the "American Dream" , forget it.... Bush threw the American Dream out the window when he decided we need to "help" other counties more than our own.

Why aren't you sending these people "Your" money or is that for everyone else to do except you?

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Victory in Iraq

Like all you Bushbots , I don't have any to send to destitute Americans because Bush takes all of it to send to other countrys...

I don't see you complaining about your tax dollars going to every other country in the world. Why not help our fellow Americans instead of giving it to people in other countrys that hate our guts.

Seeing shit blow up makes wow feel like a man. Only time that happens, so you'll have to forgive the little shitstain.

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"If you're going to tell people the truth, be funny or they'll kill you." -- Billy Wilder

"Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied." -- Otto Von Bismark

The majority of people losing their homes to foreclosure, are those who have been living above their means for many years.

Just look at Ed McMahon, 85. This man has made many millions over the last 40 years yet he still has a $4.8 million mortgage. At 85 this man should have been able to retire in his Beverly Hills Mansion, with no worries at all.

Ed McMahon fighting foreclosure on his Beverly Hills home - Yahoo! News

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If you want change stop electing "liberal: democrats and "radical" Republicans. Find and support true Conservatives; those who believe in fiscal responsibilities, individual accountability, and a smaller government, with less control of your daily life.

Come on Heck, you are better than this. Lexi has a thing about people being evicted. Did you know it takes up to a month under normal legal means to evict someone. The tenet is not told on a Monday morning "Oh by the way, you have to move" and then on Tuesday his belongings are put on the street. The dwelling must be posted with the eviction notice and then an order from a judge must be given. The tenet has every right to protest the eviction and in many cases an extention is given if a case is made. Its very difficult to actually evict someone in Florida if any kind of attempt is made to resolve the issue. My wife was an appartment manager for 15 years in Jacksonville and this was one of her complaints, that you couldn't get people out when you really needed to. Once again our resident boohooer Lexi has taken up a cause that isn't really a cause.

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Its better to have fussed and crabbed then never to have fussed at all - Lucy

Also, notice the article does say that the owner couldn't pay the mortage if the tenents didn't pay the rent. Furthermore, I can guarnatee that $1400.00 a month in Miami is not cheap rent. She could find somewhere else to live, just like the woman in Santa Barbara.

I go along with Wow, if Lexi is so concerned she should give more of her money to these people rather than depend on stealing from the rest of us

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Its better to have fussed and crabbed then never to have fussed at all - Lucy

Why should the government be responsible due to the "buyers" failure to read the fine print? "CAVEAT EMPTOR". If anyone wants to blame the government for anything...why not blame the house that now sets on their ass awaiting for the Messiah to be crowned, for not INVESTIGATING the cause for this housing trouble in the first place? That cause being "FLIPPING", the practice of many insiders of the real estate business of buying a house with little or no down payment on Variable Rate loans, buying and doing slight cosmetic work (eye wash) and then reselling before the rates changes. This practice has skirted the law and led to many insiders getting rich. If this is wrong in the stock market...why is it not wrong in the housing market? I say get off your asses in DC and do some real investigating on a real crime instead of playing "political GOTCHA" with the taxpayers time and money!!!! BD