Brooklyn Eagle: Tax Lien Sales Hurt Communities, Says Coalition

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The city is missing an opportunity to create affordable housing, claims the Abolish the NYC Tax Lien Sale Coalition, making its statement ahead of the city’s tax lien sale this Friday. The coalition released a new analysis revealing the lien sale list includes 392 vacant lots that could support the development of more than 3,600 affordable housing units. This represents a recurring missed opportunity for the city to partner with community land trusts to acquire these vacant lots and develop deeply-affordable housing for low-income New Yorkers, the organization said.  New Economy Project, a member of the coalition, prepared the analysis as the coalition calls on the city to end the lien sale – a decades-old policy that fuels speculation and extracts wealth from Black, brown and immigrant communities.

The tax lien sale scheduled for Friday, Dec. 17, would be the first to take place since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.