As our financial structure continues to meltdown on a global scale, one local sheriff tries to make a difference in his county. Cook County, Illinois, Sheriff Thomas J. Dart has made it public - he refuses to boot innocent renters from foreclosed homes. He has explained his point in detail to the media: innocent people shouldn’t have to pay the price for landlords’ and mortgage companies’ problems.

He has gone so far as to state he is suspending foreclosure evictions in Cook County, which includes the city of Chicago.

“Many good tenants are suffering because building owners have fallen behind on their mortgage payments, he told CNN’s American Morning. “These poor people are seeing everything they own put out on the street. They’ve paid their bills, paid them on time. Here we are with a battering ram at the front door going to throw them out. It’s gotten insane.”

“When you’re blindly sending me out to houses where I’m coming across innocent tenant after innocent tenant, I can’t keep doing this and have a good conscience about it.”

To demonstrate the enormity of the foreclosure problem, look at these facts:

In 1999, Cook County had 12,935 mortgage foreclosure cases; in 2006, 18,916 cases were filed, and last year, 32,269 were filed. This year’s total is expected to exceed 43,000.

The financial straits we’re in often seem overwhelming, as if there is nothing the average person can do to fight these financial giants, desperate to escape a crisis they seem to have created. When our civil servants are looking out for innocent people during trying financial times, this is positive news amidst a worrisome time.

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