By Mary Beth Lane
Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio — No one likes to enforce an eviction, especially near Christmas and in the winter cold and during a brutal recession.
But some central Ohio sheriffs won’t endorse what Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones plans to do. The sheriff in the southwestern Ohio county said he will tell his deputies not to evict people who have no place to go.
“I comply with court orders. I probably wouldn’t take it upon myself to disobey a court order,” said Fairfield County Sheriff Dave Phalen.
Still, Phalen said he is struck by the number of foreclosures that he is seeing in his county. What used be about 200 a year is now about 800.
“It has had an amazing impact on the workload in our office,” said Phalen, who has a full-time administrative deputy and a part-time employee dedicated exclusively to foreclosure work.
“We have a deputy accompany (them) to a house, and occasionally they do a set-out, when they take everything and set it out at the curb,” Phalen said.
The Franklin County sheriff’s office has an entire unit with three full-time deputies dedicated to enforcing foreclosure orders, said Sgt. Kenny Feil, who asks each year for a fourth deputy to handle the workload but doesn’t get the extra help for budget reasons.
Those foreclosure orders are up sharply, from 998 in 2007 to about 1,400 so far this year, as of Nov. 30. The total likely will reach at least 1,500 by year’s end, Feil estimated.
About 75 percent of the people involved in foreclosures leave voluntarily. It falls to the deputies to evict the rest and remove their belongings. The deputies refer people to social-service agencies, including the Franklin County Office on Aging and the county Job and Family Services office, for relocation help. The deputies also have sometimes called financial institutions and gotten extensions for people, Feil said.
It is hard work, and it is not for everyone.
“We’ve had guys transfer out because emotionally it was just too difficult for them,” Feil said. “It’s hard. It’s not a fun thing to do.”
Feil understands where the Butler County sheriff is coming from but said the Franklin County deputies will continue to follow the court orders.
“Morally, I understand what he’s doing. But legally, I can’t agree,” Feil said.
Jones faxed a letter to Gov. Ted Strickland on Tuesday asking him to issue a statewide order to stop forced evictions, at least over the winter. “I am concerned that these people will not be able to find shelter and someone will die. This would be the equivalent of receiving the death penalty for being behind on your payments,” the sheriff wrote.
Strickland is sympathetic but cannot stop evictions, said spokesman Keith Dailey.
“The governor certainly understands the concern that individuals may be forced out of their homes, especially in this economic environment, but this is not something he has the authority to do under the law,” he said.
Landlords are alarmed at Jones’ new policy.
“Usurping the power of the courts is a dangerous precedent to set,” said Jay Scott, executive director of the Columbus Apartment Association, which represents residential rental-property owners.
“It is easy to understand what he is trying to do, but he’s not doing anyone any favors. There are unintended consequences to this action. You start usurping the courts and we have a problem.”
For instance, Scott said, if tenants being evicted for nonpayment are allowed to stay, that could hurt the owner’s ability to pay the mortgage. “That can force another property into foreclosure.”
The sheriff is trying to draw attention to the needs of the needy in his county, said Bob Cornwell, executive director of the Buckeye State Sheriffs’ Association, who called Jones yesterday to ask him what he was doing. Jones told him that he and his deputies would work with people being evicted to make sure they had a place to live, Cornwell said.
Copyright 2008 Columbus Dispatch