Progress Illinois

Deluged by the thousands of foreclosure cases that have clogged the Cook County court system, Chancery Division Presiding Judge Dorothy Kirie Kinnaird made a bold move back in June when she called for a two-month reprieve on mortgage defaults. Despite her effort to buy homeowners time to seek mediation,  resources remain too scarce -- particularly for people from the low-income communities hit hardest by the foreclosure crisis.

With the county pulling in millions in foreclosure filing fees, some local housing advocates are calling on Cook County Board President Todd Stroger to get creative and start redirecting that money toward mediation services. The local community organization Action Now estimates that the spike in $300 foreclosure filing fees has generated an additional $15 million for the county's coffers. Still, the Stroger administration has yet to allocate any of that money toward foreclosure prevention. "Why not use some of that money for mediation?" Marsha Godard of West Lawndale asked at a rally outside Stroger's office this morning. "At least that would give people a fighting chance."

It's no secret that low-income and African American neighborhoods have seen the highest concentration of foreclosures here in Illinois. "We saw someone getting put out on our way down here," activist Michelle Young of Austin reported at the rally. "This is about people losing their homes -- people who are moving out in the middle of the night because they're ashamed to say 'I'm having trouble with my mortgage.'" Watch:

While local officials continue to tout an infusion of federal money intended to mitigate the housing fallout, new foreclosures continue to pile up. In September alone, 13,000 additional homeowners received notices. And that's only adding to the stress in African-American communities.  "It encourages the bad element," Godard tells us. "There's the drug dealers.  And children who are walking alone could be snatched up in one of those abandoned buildings. We need a local response."