(Miami-Dade County, FL) -- On May 5, 2009 during the meeting of the Board of County Commissioners, County Commissioner Javier D. Souto, stated that the rapidly growing mortgage foreclosure crisis in our community was forcing entire families with young children into homelessness.  Moreover, Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties are probably among the first counties in residential mortgage foreclosures in the nation. In 2008, there were almost 56,000 foreclosures filed in Miami-Dade County alone and in the first three months of 2009, there were almost 20,000 foreclosures in Miami-Dade County.  Therefore, Commissioner Souto has sponsored a resolution that will come before the full Board of County Commissioners at Tuesday's meeting (May 19, 2009). 

One of the provisions in Commissioner Souto's resolution urges Congress to pass legislation providing bankruptcy judges with greater flexibility to modify the terms of home loans, and further urges Congress and the Florida Legislature to pass legislation helping families to avoid foreclosures. "Miami-Dade County cannot sit idly waiting for the State of Florida - which just concluded its Legislative Session - nor can we wait for the Federal Government, where the bill approved by the United States Senate omitted the Democrats' most ambitious proposal to aid troubled homeowners: a provision that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to modify the terms of primary mortgages," said Souto. According to the Commissioner, the House version of the bill did include the bankruptcy provision.  Senator Christopher Dodd stated last week: "We are facing the greatest crisis in homelessness since the Great Depression."