John Beale, Post-Gazette On his last day in his home, George Grisham Jr. wipes away tears as he waits for a neighbor to say goodbye. Grisham lived in the Climax Street home for 25 years. Click photo for larger image.

Sixty-five-year-old George Grisham Jr. sat in the doorway of his house, waiting for the inevitable.

A quarter of a century of unpaid city and county taxes meant he would be evicted the next morning from his home at 89 Climax St. in the Beltzhoover section of Pittsburgh.

Wheelchair bound by the loss of his left leg a year ago to diabetes, on this day he despaired more over the realization that the home where he raised seven children and that neighbors knew as "Mr. G.'s Place" would soon be a memory.

Grisham was one of 45 Allegheny County residents evicted from their homes in May.

Eviction, or "the action in ejectment," as the state statute calls it, is the final stage of a protracted process for homeowners that most often begins with a mortgage default or nonpayment of county and school district taxes, or water and sewer bills. Each step is marked by letters from lenders or collection agencies, and numerous county mailings and notices of pending actions posted on front doors.

	Click photo for larger image. GRISHAM HOME Problem: Nonpayment of taxes. Status: Living with daughter. Quote: "God's telling me it's time to move on."

It can involve residents being forceably removed from their homes by deputies.

In February, a sheriff's deputy opened the door of a house on the day of an eviction and found the owner had committed suicide by hanging himself from the second-floor bannister.

Other times, it's a delicate matter between parents and children.

"Parents will meet their children at school that day and tell them, 'We're going to go live with grandma,'" said Allegheny County Sheriff's Sgt. Rich Fersch.

Most often, residents have vacated their homes by the time a deputy, a real estate agent and cleaning crew arrive on eviction day to secure and clean the house. Any belongings left in the house are stored for 30 days at the expense of the plaintiff, usually the mortgage lender or loan service company. Repairs are made, walls are repainted and carpets cleaned. Within a short time the house is back on the market. The mortgage lender tries to recoup its costs from the sale of the home.

"You become callous after a while," said Matt Boyle, who owns Southwest Maintenance, a company that cleans homes following evictions. "But some of the people, your heart bleeds for them."

Grisham has had his share of tough times: prison, divorce, the loss of his leg. Initially, he vowed to fight the eviction -- "They're going to have to take me to jail," he said in April, when a technicality delayed his eviction by a month.

	John Beale, Post-Gazette Matthew Booth Sr. and his son, Matt Jr., 11, react to the news that the home was sold at sheriff's sale earlier in the day. Booth's grandparents built the house in 1958. On her deathbed, his grandmother asked that he keep the house in the family. Click photo for larger image.

Grisham claimed he was the victim of "scare tactics" from GLS Capital Inc., a private collection agency that bought the county's delinquent tax liens in 1997.

But after realizing that he had nearly two dozen delinquent county tax liens dating to 1981, Grisham resigned himself to leaving and in early May moved in with a daughter.

Matthew Booth, 32, hasn't decided when he and his family will leave their McKeesport home of eight years, except that it will be sometime this summer before the deputies come to evict them. His home was sold in March for delinquent taxes at a public sheriff's sale.

Booth keeps the fence surrounding his home locked at all times, and has posted "Beware of dog" and "No trespassing" signs to keep outsiders away. His three kids must climb the 4 1/2-foot fence any time they leave the yard.

	Click photo for larger image. BOOTH HOME Problem: Nonpayment of taxes. Status: Has arranged housing for family with relatives. Quote: "I don't think anyone has a right to come and take a man's home from him."

Booth, who works parttime, says he spends his days "freaking out" and looking for a full-time job while his kids are in school and his common-law wife drives a schoolbus. He and his family live in a home built in 1958 by his grandparents.

"Those were her dying words," he said of his grandmother. "'Please keep the house in the family.' And I let her down. All my kids' first steps were here. All their first words were here. It's just disheartening."

He says his family will live with relatives temporarily, but he hasn't decided what he'll do. He doesn't want to lose his two dogs, and he can't keep them at his relatives' home. He said he might live in his truck.

Booth said finances caused him to fall behind in his taxes. He said he had to choose between paying bills or feeding his kids.

"It's hard to feel hope," Booth said. "It's hard to feel life when you're constantly down. They shouldn't make it so hard on you that living becomes a burden."

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Correction/Clarification: (Published June 8, 2004) This article in the special section "A Dream Foreclosed" published online June 7, 2004, stated incorrectly that Allegheny County paid the first 30 days' storage cost of possessions left in the homes of evicted people. It's the plaintiff, usually the mortgage lender or loan service company, who is responsible for paying for the 30-day storage costs.