To its credit, Wednesday Journal has chronicled in detail Faith Julian’s ongoing efforts to save her family’s home from forfeiture for non-payment of property taxes. This is an inspiring story and I wish her success.
Hopefully, having the support of a cast of luminaries, including Congressman Danny Davis, she will make some progress (see Wednesday Journal, Feb. 23, “Rep. Danny Davis, supporters push to preserve Percy Julian home”).
But Faith Julian is not the only one who could use a little support. Each year hundreds if not thousands of Cook County and Illinois homeowners lose their homes for non-payment of what often are very small amounts of property taxes. And the owner gets nothing, no matter how much equity they have built up in the home through years and even decades of hard work. Life savings are lost in many cases. It is sometimes called “equity theft.”
Adding insult to injury, at the end of the forfeiture process the Sheriff may turn the owner out onto the street, piling their possessions on the curb for all the world to see. It’s an inhumane, even barbaric, practice.
And it happens right here in our own backyard. In Danny Davis’ backyard. In Don Harmon and Camille Lilly’s backyards. This is so even though the U.S. Supreme Court declared almost a year ago, issuing a rare 9-0 opinion in a case I brought (Tyler v. Hennepin County), that taking people’s home equity without compensating them is unconstitutional.
In the Supreme Court we had the support of dozens of prestigious organizations, representing every political perspective, including the ACLU, AARP, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Cato Institute. Even the state of Texas supported us.
Chief Justice John Roberts, voicing the views of a unanimous Supreme Court, wrote in upholding the rights of my client, 95-year-old Geraldine Tyler, that taxpayers who are delinquent must “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, but no more,” voiding the Minnesota statutes in question.
Studies have shown that forfeiting homes for non-payment of taxes heavily impacts poor people and people of color (big surprise), as well as seniors, people with disabilities and other vulnerable members of society.
What has been done so far by our elected government officials to alleviate this problem and right this wrong? Thus far, nothing. Welcome to Cook County, Illinois.
But something can be done. Contact your elected state, county and local officials. Explain the problem and ask why nothing is happening and what they plan to do about this regrettable state of affairs.
Let’s all help Faith Julian and others in her predicament.
Charles R. Watkins is an attorney with Guin, Stokes & Evans LLC in Chicago.
