WINSTON-SALEM -- The foreclosure crisis is taking a toll on local communities, as the problem breaks down past the economic level and in to the area of crime.

Experts say there is a direct link between increased foreclosure rates and increases in violent crime. Members of the legal community in Winston-Salem are calling on their colleagues to help stop crime before it starts by keeping people in their homes.

"Foreclosure is a nationwide phenomenon that's starting to hit Winston-Salem. We're looking at over 50 foreclosures a week in Forsyth County,” explained Tom Keith, Forsyth Co. district attorney. “That means, maybe 200 people will be out on the street if there's two children in a family."

Keith says for each 1 percent increase in foreclosure, there’s a 2.3 percent increase in the violent crime rate within an 0.8 mile radius of that location.

“Talking with the people in the clerk's office, we're looking at all income levels -- half-a-million-dollar homes, small home owners, everybody, white, black, Hispanic -- it cuts across all parts of our society,” said Keith.

Keith says legal help gives people the advantage they need to wade through the financial terms and keep their home.

“It's of tremendously important [that] this community and the bar association step up to the plate and we're trying to get attorneys to come forward and represent these poor people in foreclosure so they can renegotiate, not litigate their way out of this sub-prime mess,” said Keith.

Police in the Mecklenburg County town of Matthews are also taking steps to prevent criminal fallout in the wake of foreclosures. Last month they started tracking the houses people have had to give up.

Officials say empty homes can sometimes be a haven for criminal activity. They enter foreclosed houses into their database and keep an extra eye on them on patrol.

If you need help with your mortgage, click HERE to visit the Legal Aid of North Carolina’s mortgage foreclosure project web site.