Foreclosure sales on track for holidays?

Housing advocates are questioning whether lenders are honoring promises to stop foreclosures for the holidays.

Shawana Daniels fears she may be homeless for the holidays. Despite talk of foreclosure moratoriums, the sale date of her Pompano Beach home is set for Dec. 30. ''I am not in the Christmas spirit this year,'' said Daniels, 41, who lives with her mother, daughter and three grandchildren. ``I can't be because I can't sleep at night and I don't eat for days.'' Promises from the lending industry to cancel foreclosure sales for the holidays don't seem to be making a dent in the number of South Florida homes scheduled for public auction in December. Last week, the Florida Bankers Association and Gov. Charlie Crist announced a 45-day voluntary moratorium on foreclosures in the state. At the time, neither could provide names of lenders that had agreed to participate.

On Monday, Alex Sanchez, chief executive of the Florida Bankers Association, would say only that their members were doing everything possible to keep borrowers in their homes, not only for the holidays, but permanently.

Nonetheless, in Miami-Dade, 933 homes are scheduled for auction in the next nine days. After a two-week holiday hiatus, the conveyor belt resumes the first full week of January.

''I haven't noticed any difference in the amount we are scheduling,'' said Deborah Peterson, court records supervisor for Miami-Dade.

Numbers were not immediate available in Broward County, but the clerk of courts has auctions scheduled up to Dec. 30.

On Tuesday, ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a liberal housing advocacy group, said it was pressing the state's bankers for details about the moratorium so that desperate homeowners can get answers.

''We at ACORN help hundreds of people; they come to us every week. Out of the whole population that comes to us twice a week, we have failed to find one person who will be helped by this 45-day moratorium,'' said William Moore, an Orlando-based member of the organization's anti-foreclosure committee.

Earlier this month, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage-finance giants seized by the U.S. government, announced they would suspend foreclosures through Jan. 9.

Daniels, who is battling both HIV and lung cancer, said she doesn't know where she will go or how to get help.

''I need answers. Does my mortgage company fall within their guidelines?'' Daniels asked of the moratorium. ``I can't go on the street. I don't know what to do. I need help.''