Press Release
Statement: Mayor’s Refusal to Cancel This Year’s Tax Lien Sale is Unconscionable Amid Pandemic
Every year, New York City sells liens on residential and commercial properties that have unpaid water bills or property taxes. First instituted in 1996, the tax lien sale is deeply destabilizing for homeowners, tenants, and businesses, often resulting in years of instability, growing debt, and eventual foreclosure. When a debt collector buys a lien, they can add fees and interest of up to 18 percent. Over 9,000 residential and commercials properties may be at risk as early as this Friday.
The tax lien sale disproportionately impacts Black and Latinx homeowners and tenants, who have also borne the brunt of the pandemic.
As New Yorkers continue to live under the interconnected impacts of a health and an economic crisis, the city must cancel this year's tax lien sale. It is unconscionable for the city to inflict yet another burden on tenants, homeowners, and businesses who have already suffered through so much.
More broadly, the city must re-evaluate the utility of this Giuliani-era program, before it is re-authorized to continue by the City Council.