Mayor Scott Removes Homeowners from Tax Sale

Today Mayor Scott made an historic announcement that I’m thrilled about! He will remove certain homeowners from tax sale. Here is the press statement.

Here are my remarks I made during the press conference today:

These past few weeks I have witnessed heroic efforts to help homeowners save their homes from predatory tax sale. Advocates from Fight Blight Baltimore, Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service, Probono Resource Center, volunteers in my district and so many others have helped many homeowners through addressing accounting issues, applying their Homeowner’s Tax Credits, reminding people of the deadline, and providing financial assistance. I myself knocked on at least 100 doors of residents about to enter tax sale and responded to countless emails and phone calls for help. My constituents and residents across the City donated to the Better Waverly Fund and the Stop Oppressive Seizures (SOS) Fund.  They believe strongly that the way we collect taxes in Maryland and in Baltimore is predatory, and worked hard to save people’s homes.

Together, over $80,000 was raised to help residents avoid tax sale this year, which helped 62 homeowners (22 of which were in District 14). The Probono Resource Center and MVLS helped many others accounting issues, while our office helped solve an additional 35 residents’ accounting issues. I am certain my colleagues in the City Council also resolved countless requests for assistance to help their constituents avoid tax sale. I want to thank Director Raymond and his team for answering every email, every question, and being flexible with our requests.

Let me tell you about the homeowners I met. I met a great-grandmother caring for her great grands who did not remember to apply for the Homeowners Tax Credit to eliminate her debt - and she should not have to apply each year. I met a family who inherited and now live in their grandfather’s home who don’t have a mortgage but could not manage the tax burden because of a COVID hardship. I met homeowners who have to chose between paying their citations and paying for the work to be done to the home, the citations landed them in tax sale. I met residents who paid their taxes but the taxes were misapplied, and I met homeowners who were stuck with a vacant building notice because the developer of their home did not file a Use and Occupancy permit which I am introducing legislation to address this evening. I can go on and on about the situations homeowners find themselves in that land them in Tax sale.

I am excited the Scott Administration has answered the calls for change, and know the Mayor has lost sleep over how to help people, almost as much sleep as I’ve lost. What the Administration has announced today is the first step. The next step is to help every homeowner this year, and put through reforms of the entire system over the next year to repair administrative hurdles and eliminate this predatory tax sale system. I look forward to working with the Administration, my City Council Colleagues, and the advocates who have been working on this for years, to accomplish these important goals.