The lives of sheriffs and homeowners are increasingly getting intertwined as the foreclosure crisis threatens the American dream. Every time a sheriff goes to a property and turns it into a foreclosed house for sale, he also meets a fellow American losing the American dream.
Dale Thornton, a sheriff's deputy in DeKalb, Georgia, said he tries his best to be professional in dealing with every homeowner being forced out of a foreclosed house for sale. He said that he feels for people being evicted, but he has to do it to preserve his job and his own American dream. He explained that his house can also become a foreclosed house for sale if he does not implement what he is told do according to law.
Annie Benson, who came to the U.S. from Africa in 1981, is one among several whom Thornton met in difficult circumstances. Benson said her life has not been easy, but the time she saw her things piled on top of the other as an eviction company cleared her family's rental home was a devastating moment.
She said she did not know that her landlord was not paying the monthly mortgage payments while she was faithfully paying her monthly rent.
Similarly, Tony Cartwright was being evicted from the house his grandmother bought in 1936. Cartwright insisted he did not miss any mortgage payment despite his cancer treatments, but the deputy sheriffs and marshals and the employees of eviction companies needed to evict him from his house.
Allen Mathias, member of the sheriff's department in Gwinnett, said he absolutely hates doing evictions. He understands how illness, divorce, job loss and other factors can wipe out a family's finances and turn their home into a foreclosed house for sale.
Another immigrant losing her American dream is a single mother who came to the U.S. from South America 26 years ago. She has packed her belongings when the sheriffs arrived because she perfectly knows she can no longer make the payments. She related that she got divorced and then her mother got sick with cancer, draining her finances. When her mother died last year, she has no more to pay the house.
But there is still a way to save the American dream, according to the HOPE Now program. Many homeowners who have lost hope can still be helped. They just have to call the 888-995-HOPE hotline and talk with a housing counselor. In Atlanta, they can contact the Homeownership Preservation Foundation.
Start your Search for:
- Alabama Foreclosed House for Sale
- Colorado Foreclosed House for Sale
- Georgia Foreclosed House for Sale
- Iowa Foreclosed House for Sale
- Minnesota Foreclosed House for Sale
Or search Foreclosed House for Sale by State.
