Mayor Zohran Mamdani plans to halt New York City’s tax lien sale program and might consider ending the practice.
The program began in 1996 and involves the sale of property owners’ unpaid tax liens and water debt at a discount to a private investor-backed trust, which then attempts to collect unpaid bills while levying new fees on the homeowners. Under the program, the city can sell a property tax lien when the owner owes as little as $5,000, and if water and sewer debt reaches $1,000 for condo owners.
The Gothamist reports the mayor is suspending tax lien sales for the current fiscal year and will conduct a six-month review of the policy to determine its viability. Critics of the tax lien sales claim it disproportionately impacts Black homeowners. Mamdani condemned the program as “racism” in his 2025 campaign.
Mamdani spokesperson Matt Rauschenbach issued a statement that said, “Our current property tax lien sale process to collect overdue taxes and fees is broken — allowing predatory debt collectors to profit off the backs of working and middle-class homeowners, driving New Yorkers out of their homes.”
The mayor’s executive budget estimated the city will lose $80 million in revenue by suspending the tax lien sale. The process was suspended during the 2020 pandemic and again in 2022. Reforms to the process that included an “easy exit” option for homeowners were introduced in 2024.
Rauschenbach added the Mamdani administration will be “pursuing ways to improve outreach, utilize new tools such as a landbank and develop protections for descendants living in their family home.”
Cudos to the mayor. It is about time that someone stands for the regular people.
Heidi, did you not read the article – this is aimed to help black people since he says they are the ones that are delinquent. Can you get any more racist???? Blacks should be outraged that the dems constantly denegrade the blacks -“they can not get ID to vote, they don’t pay their taxes, they can not get into college,they can not get a job without special assistance”. So demeaning.
This reply is not making sense to me. The current tax lien sale program predominately impacts the African American population (that is a statistic), and when that debt is sold, the investor backed trust comes after the homeowner for MORE money an fees than they owned initially. In essence, this investor backed trust makes a ton of money by being a debt collector. The city loses money by selling the debt at a discount, so perhaps there is a program to education delinquent homeowners and structure a pay-up model themselves.
The tax lien system actually targets people that don’t pay their taxes. It does not sort them out based on skin color. Fact check it.
Do you mean the regular delinquent people that are always looking for a hand out??
Hmmm….help and racist…the same??? Look up the % of black people in each state, then compare to othe races. Black people always get left out to dry because the system was built that way by whites. Good for the Mayor, he truly is trying to fix a small part of the system. White and woke(I do my research and learn more everyday)and I’m 70!
You also forget that someone must pay or the city can’t pay its bills. You’re condemning the rest of the taxpayers to foot the bill for those who don’t or won’t pay, whatever their reason.
There is no such thing as a free ride. It should not be on the backs of homeowners who do the right thing to pick up the slack, meaning their taxes will go up.
Instead, why not work with those in default to make payments within their budget. If even that is not possible, then they might HAVE to give up the property, and require the purchaser to extend reasonable rental terms so they can remain there and the purchasers could make a profit on their investment.It’s not right to expect others to pick up the burden.
Michigan had this practice. They changed it from selling them to the state taking the property and selling it for a profit. They can’t stand anyone but them making money. this went on for years until someone sued. Now they still take the property. sell it for a profit. But the owner can file paperwork to get the profit minus fees back.
Marsha not sure if you read the article. Critics say it is disproportionately affects black people but the mayor says they are profiting off the backs of working middle class people. Data shows many things like this are disproportionate for black people that is fact not racism and thank goodness someone is trying to do something about it.CR not all people don’t or won’t pay. Many of them have extenuating circumstances and just need a hand for a short time. To sell tax liens to investors who make a ton of money is not right. It is like the foreclosure crisis people couldn’t get caught up because the foreclosure attorneys added thousand of dollars in fees and interest to what the homeowners owed. Many attorneys got very rich on the backs of working class people that for one reason or another fell on temporary bad times. If people would quit judging everyone and putting labels on them when all they are trying to do it get their head above water the world would be a different place. Yes you get the ones that take advantage but there are more that just need a little help getting on their feet.
It is a good Thing—Everyone get into Financial difficulties at times and this is a way to help pull out with more time to pay a debt.