At a hearing before the council’s Ways and Means committee Tuesday, housing advocates said that payment plans would prevent low-income residents from from falling behind on their taxes and seeing their homes go up for tax sale — an annual event in which Baltimore City attempts to recoup revenue by auctioning property liens to third party investors who can charge homeowners high interest rates and eventually foreclose on those properties if their debts remain unpaid.
The city does not collect demographic data on those who face tax sale, but of those who attended 2020 tax sale clinics run by the Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service, 72% were seniors, 48% were disabled and 85% were Black. Nearly three-fourths reported annual household incomes of less than $30,000. Attendees owned their homes for an average of 24 years; nearly 75% of them did not have a mortgage.
