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The growing number of houses up for sheriff's sale has some calling for a cap on the number of properties sold every month, while the sheriff's office says it needs more people to keep up with the burgeoning caseload.

The Allegheny County Sheriff's Office put 847 properties up for sale on Monday. Next month, that could be 1,100, said sheriff's Sgt. Richard Fersch. Though the numbers have skyrocketed, the office employs the same number of people in its real estate division as when the monthly average was 80 sales, said Sheriff Pete DeFazio.

"At some point, we can't do more with the people we have," said John Bacharach, solicitor for the sheriff's office.

There are two solutions: more employees or fewer sales.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now wants DeFazio to cap sales at 300 a month. ACORN's head organizer, Maryellen Hayden, blamed so-called predatory loans for the jump in foreclosures that lead to sheriff's sales. Predatory loans are easy to get but have strings attached, such as high interest rates or early payment penalties.

"It's like a mill that grinds people's dreams up," Hayden said.

Of the record 4,377 properties that went to sheriff's sale last year, 47 percent were sparked by predatory lending, Hayden said. Enticed by the prospect of easy money, homeowners nationwide are taking out home equity loans for things for which they shouldn't be mortgaging their homes, she said.

ACORN members have met with sheriff's office employees over the last few months in an effort to slow the sales, which are expected to reach more than 6,000 by year's end.

Debbie Molinari, 42, nearly added to that statistic Monday. In a tale familiar to ACORN members, Molinari and her husband lost their jobs, defaulted on their mortgage and saw their home of eight years put up for sale.

Molinari called ACORN's foreclosure hot line -- (412) 441-6316 -- and with help convinced a motions judge to give her a 60-day stay minutes before the sheriff's sale was to start. ACORN will provide financial counseling to Molinari and help her figure out how to catch up with her payments, Hayden said.

The drama and heartbreak behind sheriff's sales is easily lost in the sterile, monotonous process, said Molinari, who has a 4-year-old daughter.

But the sheriff's office simply can't decide to cap sales every month, DeFazio said. That order would have to come from a judge, and it is sure to run into stiff resistance from mortgage companies who would have to wait much longer to get the money owed to them, DeFazio said.

"It's reaching outrageous numbers, and it's crushing to people here, but we have to do what we have to do," DeFazio said, adding that he could be thrown in jail for stopping a sale without a judge's permission.

Until a judge gives him the authorization, the sheriff's office needs more people if it is going to comply with the law, DeFazio said. The office has enough deputies, but it needs about four more clerks to keep up with the paperwork, he said.

That works out to about $94,400 a year for salary plus benefits, said Fersch. Nine people, including two cashiers, work on the sales in the sheriff's office, and 11 deputies serve papers to homeowners whose houses are going up for sale.

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