Philadelphia urged to buy back $10 million in liens to protect community gardens and lots from sheriff’s sale

The campaign has identified around 500 parcels being used as gardens and side yards at risk of sheriff’s sale, as well as 475 plots they say could be acquired for affordable housing.

By Oona Goodin-Smith
Philadelphia Inquirer
May 25, 2022

Excerpt:

The campaign — dubbed “Restore Community Land” — has identified around 500 parcels being used as gardens and side yards at risk of sheriff’s sale, as well as 475 plots they say could be acquired for affordable housing.

The land is at-risk, advocates say, due to liens stemming from the 1997 attempt by the city to bundle 33,000 tax liens and sell them to US Bank, a private lienholder, in an effort to quickly raise funds for the cash-strapped school district.

The move unintentionally privatized the ownership of the abandoned, lien-encumbered lots, leaving them to be sold through sheriff’s sales and backroom deals.

The new campaign, backed by Brooks and Councilmembers Helen Gym and Jamie Gauthier, proposes that the city reacquire the properties from US Bank by paying the roughly $10 million in liens. Their plan suggests that the city then partner with stakeholders to advocate for parcels to be acquired by the Land Bank and establish pathways for community ownership of the land — mainly concentrated in poorer, Black, and Latino neighborhoods in North and West Philadelphia.

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