Baltimore City Begins Tax Sale Exemption Program to Keep Residents in Their Homes

This program helps homeowners avoid tax sale for unpaid City bills. 

The deadline to apply for this program is Friday, April 15. 

Learn more at https://dhcd.baltimorecity.gov/hho/tax-sale-prevention.

Learn more or register for a free homeowner clinic at http://www.myhomemydeed.org, or call 443-451-4066.

What is it?

The Tax Sale Exemption Program is an annual city program managed by the Departments of Finance and Housing and Community Development. Successful applicants have their properties removed from tax sale in the year they apply. However, this program does not forgive unpaid bills, and if the bills are not paid, they may qualify the property for tax sale the next year.

The city sets aside $2 million dollars annually. From that starting balance, the amount of each applicant’s liens is deducted from the balance remaining. Once the $2 million dollars is exhausted, the program closes. 

Eligibility

Homeowners who receive Final Bill and Legal Notices (FBLN) in February are eligible to participate in this program if they meet following criteria:

(1) The assessed value of their home is $250,000 or less (look it up here—SDAT: Real Property Search (maryland.gov)), and

(2) The homeowner has lived in their home as a primary residence for at least 15 years, and

One of the following criteria are met:

(1)  The homeowner has a total annual household earned income of $36,000 or less; or

(2)  The homeowner is at least 65 years old and has an annual earned income of $75,000 or less; or

(3)  The homeowner is an adult currently receiving disability benefits from the Federal Social Security Disability Insurance Program or the Supplemental Security Income Program and has an annual earned income of $75,000 or less.

How can I apply?

The number of properties removed from tax sale through this program is limited, and applications are reviewed on a first come, first served basis, so it is best to apply as early as you can. Applications are accepted February 15 – April 15 each year. You must apply every year for this exemption. You can:

Apply online at https://portal.neighborlysoftware.com/baltimoremd/Participant.

Download an application here: https://dhcd.baltimorecity.gov/files/final-tax-sale-exemption-application.pdf.

Or pick up a paper application at the 1st floor of the Abel Wolman Building, and the 11th floor of 417 E. Fayette Street, Baltimore, 21202. To submit a paper application, you may mail it or bring it to:

          Baltimore City Department of Housing and Community Development
          417 E. Fayette Street, Suite 1125 (11th floor)
          Baltimore, MD 21202

For more information regarding the application process please call the Department of Finance at 410. 396.3000 or email the Department of Housing & Community Development at dhcd.taxsaleinfo@baltimorecity.gov.

For More Information

To learn more about the tax sale process, avoiding tax sale, or to schedule a community-based information session, please contact Michael O'Leary, Tax Sale Services Coordinator at michael.oleary@baltimorecity.gov or 410-396-0273.

Baltimore City Department of Finance Tax Sale Information 2020 Tax Sale FAQs.

 

 D.C. Trails Maryland and Virginia in Civil Rights Efforts to End Qualified Immunity

According to the Institute of Justice, a nonprofit public interest law firm and advocacy organization, the Washington, D.C. Council has not yet tried to pass legislation to end qualified immunity, which protects victims - a federal legal doctrine that protects government employees - including when they violate constitutional rights - from lawsuits stemming from a school official strip-searching a student or police officers stealing cash and rare coins. There are currently efforts in the Maryland and Virginia legislatures to enact these protections. 

The reason this is important is that because of qualified immunity it is very difficult to sue government officials when they violate someone's rights. Legally, qualified immunity involves a judge-created two-part test to determine ability to sue: (1) A rights violation has to have occurred, and (2) that violation must be “clearly established” in case law. That basically means you can sue only if you can find another case with the exact same circumstances and where a judge ruled against the government. Because judges can throw out cases without even deciding if a rights violation occurred, this often ends up being a barrier.

The Institute for Justice ranked D.C. as one of the worst jurisdictions in the country for victims of rights abuses, along with Delaware and four other states, with an F grade.  New Mexico leads the nation in state-law redress thanks to the New Mexico Civil Rights Act. Enacted in 2021, that law lets victims sue the employer of any government worker who violates their state constitutional rights and specifically bans the use of “qualified” or “sovereign” immunities. This guarantees that courts have to take rights violations in that state seriously.

Ending qualified immunity does not mean government officials will be punished for good-faith, split-second mistakes. But it would help restore trust and accountability to government officials.

Read the March 4, 2022 Washington Post article.

 Book Review

Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life

By Karen E. Fields and Barbara J. Fields.

Verso, 2022 (2014). 310 pages, $19.95 paperback.

Just out in paperback, this edition of a widely praised work on race and racism is as British historian Robin Blackburn - author of The American Crucible: Slavery, Emancipation And Human Rights (Versdo, 2013) - has remarked:

“A most impressive work, tackling a demanding and important topic—the myth that we now live in a postracial society—in a novel, urgent, and compelling way. The authors dispel this myth by squarely addressing the paradox that racism is scientifically discredited but, like witchcraft before it, retains a social rationale in societies that remain highly unequal and averse to sufficiently critical engagement with their own history and traditions.”

Sociologist Karen E. Fields and historian Barbara J. Fields argue that though most people assume racism comes from a perception of human difference, the practice of racism produces the illusion of race, through what they call “racecraft.” This is so entwined with other forms of inequality in American life. Racecraft is so much a continuing part of American history, economic doctrine, politics, and daily thinking that the presence of racecraft itself goes unnoticed.

The authors hold that the reason that the promised post-racial age has not begun is partly because Americans have failed to develop a legitimate language for thinking about and discussing inequality. Until this is done, the racial age will continue.

 Book Review

The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives

by Adolph L. Reed, Jr.

Verso, 2022. 160 pages, $24.95 hardcover.

This is an interesting narrative account of the South's long history of Jim Crow as people actually experienced it. This is important to relate because the last generation of Americans with a living memory of Jim Crow will soon pass on. The Jim Crow era's segregation order was complex and an apartheid system. This book uses first-hand individual stories and analysis to illuminate its legal framework, systems of power, and the way these systems structured the daily interactions, lives, and fates of ordinary working people. Reed's book includes a foreword from Barbara Fields, co-author of the excellent Racecraft:The Soul of Inequality in American Life (Verso, 2014) - which also is reviewed in this Blog.

The author Adolph Reed Jr. is a leading scholar of race, American politics, and inequality. Reed is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, and has held positions at Yale, Northwestern, and the New School. He is a lifelong organizer and public intellectual, a contributing editor at The New Republic, and a frequent contributor to Harpers and The Nation.

 The Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition is Hiring Fair Housing Testers

Help enforce the Fair Housing Act - and get paid!

    $150 for completing rental tester training.

    $ 50 for each rental test.

    $200 for completing lending tester training.

    $100 for each lending test.

What do testers do? The purpose of testing is to monitor compliance with the Fair Housing Act and other civil rights laws. Fair housing testers are trained to go undercover and shop for rental housing, mortgages, or a home to purchase. Testers write a detailed report about their shopping experience, and may later serve as a witness in complaints.

Tester Requirements: Be over the age of 18; Have no felony convictions; Never have been terminated or asked to leave a position because of fraud or dishonesty; Have access to a computer, a phone, and reliable internet connection; and be able to write clear reports in English.

Work remotely! All testing is conducted by phone or online, and you don't need to live in Maryland to work as a tester!

Questions? Contact Robyn Dorsey at Robyn@marylandconsumers.org.

*****

Source: Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition (MCCR) newsletter, March 4, 2022.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH CONCERT WITH RODERICK DEMMINGS, JR.
 AT GOVANS PRESBYTERIAN 

The Church is hosting a Black History Month concert with Roderick Demmings, Jr. in their sanctuary and online. Register in advance.

According to Soundcloud, award-winning pianist and organist, Roderick Demmings Jr. gave his Carnegie Hall debut at age 12, performing on the piano on PBS. Since that time, he’s performed at concert halls and cathedrals in the U.S., Italy, France, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and the Caribbean. His genres range from Classical to Jazz to RnB to Hip-Hop.

For more information: 410-435-9188 or office​@govanspres.org.

Book Review

Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality

by Tomiko Brown-Nagin. 512 pages. Pantheon: 2022. Kindle $14.99, Hardover $30.00.

This is the first major biography of one of an extremely influential judges who was an activist lawyer and became the first Black woman appointed to the federal judiciary, serving as a U.S. District Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

“A must read for anyone who dares to believe that equal justice under the law is possible and is in search of a model for how to make it a reality.” —Anita Hill.

The author is the Civil Rights and legal historian and dean of the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Tomiko Brown-Nagin.

Motley (1921-2005) was born to a blue-collar family in New Haven, Connecticut, during the Great Depression. In 1945, during Baker's second year at Columbia Law School, future United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall hired her as a law clerk. She worked on court martial cases that were filed after World War II. After graduating from Columbia's Law School in 1946, Baker became a civil rights lawyer anjd the first female lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF). As Associate Counsel to the LDF, she was the lead trial attorney in several early and historically important civil rights cases including representing the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Freedom Riders, and the Birmingham Children Marchers. She visited Rev. King Jr. when he was in jail, as well as spent a night with civil rights activist Medgar Evers under armed guard. In 1950, she wrote the original complaint in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education.

Among other achievements, she was the first black woman to argue a case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. The only black woman member in the legal team at the NAACP's Inc. Fund then, she defended the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Birmingham, and was a central force in ending Jim Crow laws in the South. Motley also was the first black woman elected to the State Senate in New York (21st district) and the first woman elected Manhattan Borough President.

*****

Sources:

 "Motley, Constance Baker - Federal Judicial Center". www.fjc.gov.

 Mrs. Motley Inducted as Federal Judge in The New York Times on September 10, 1966 

 "Rep. Rangel Introduces Resolution Recognizing Life, Achievements of U.S. District Court Judge." US Fed News Service, Including US State News, Feb 28, 2007.