ABOLISH THE TAX LIEN SALE

Our first city-wide policy campaign has been to push back against the city’s tax lien sale, a vestige of the Giuliani era. By selling municipal property and utility debts to private collectors, the city dispossesses longtime homeowners and relinquishes public leverage over delinquent and neglectful landlords.

The East New York Community Land Trust began organizing against the lien sale in 2020 when member Niani Taylor came to our policy committee meeting and said “did you all know that East New York and Brownsville had the highest number of properties on the lien sale compared to any other neighborhood in NYC?” We began investigating. We learned that the City is six times more likely to sell a tax lien in Black neighborhood than a white neighborhood. 

Diagram of the existing NYC Tax Lien Sale system by Sam Kattan and Rania Dalloul (March 2022).

ABOLISH THE TAX LIEN SALE COALITION

In response, we convened the city-wide Abolish the NYC Tax Lien Sale Coalition to stop the displacement of longtime BIPOC homeowners for small tax debts, enact protections for tenants in tax lien sale-affected buildings, and to create a new system of debt collection that keeps people in their homes and creates a property pipeline for CLT homes. We have conducted outreach to countless homeowners and tenants, produced reports, held rallies and press conferences, and beat the drum about the predatory nature of the lien sale.

COALITION MEMBERS

East New York CLT (Lead), New Economy Project, TakeRoot Justice, Western Queens CLT, Bronx CLT, Community Service Society of New York, Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition. Brooklyn Level Up, Coalition for Community Advancement, New York City Community Land Initiative, MHANY Management Inc.

ENDORSERS

New York Civil Liberties Union, New York Communities For Change, Center for NYC Neighborhoods

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OUR VICTORIES

Although this fight is still ongoing, our efforts garnered several victories in the years since the campaign began, including a 3-year moratorium on the sale itself, public funding to support homeowners and reforms to the policy itself.

Most recently, we forced the introduction and passage of two bills that will end the lien sale as we know it. These laws authorize a publicly accountable land bank to handle city debt and will prioritize keeping residents in their homes. We are currently working to shape the implementation of a just and equitable replacement system that will fuel the growth of community ownership and prioritize CLTs for disposition.

LEGISLATION

  1. We helped pass these laws:

  • Local Law 56 of 2026: The law will establish a land bank in New York City. The land bank will prevent displacement, preserve homeowner equity, and ensure that property disposition meets community needs, such as the creation or preservation of affordable housing.

  • Local Law 62 of 2026: The law modifies tax lien sales by: 1) requiring the Dept. of Finance (DOF) to only sell liens to the NYC Land Bank no later than December 31, 2028; and 2) setting foreclosure conditions for owner-occupied 1-3 unit properties. 

  • Local Law 65 of 2026: The law requires the DOF commissioner to transfer/sell any liens held by a tax lien trust that the city has an interest in to a land bank within six months of its creation.

2. Expand outreach, organizing and support to low-income homeowners who are struggling with tax and mortgage debt.

SELECTED MEDIA

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