Chicago task force formed to help those struggling with property taxes

A task force aimed at keeping minority homeowners in Cook County, Illinois from losing their homes if they can't pay their property taxes is getting underway.

Legislation, SB 74, which created the task force, made its way through Illinois' Senate in late July. 

Members of the group, spearheaded by Sen. Robert Peters, D-South Shore and Rep. Debbie Meyers-Martin, D-Matteson, will be tasked with coming up with a few alternative payment plan options to keep delinquent owner-occupied properties from being subject to a tax sale.

Such a sale allows for investors to purchase a borrower's debt, causing a homeowner to lose their property. These types of transactions have a significant impact on minority communities in Chicago.

In areas with the highest number of tax sale evictions in Cook County, close to 73% of people identified as Black, according to an analysis of data from 2010 to 2020 by nonprofit Housing Action Illinois. For comparison, among the 44 zip codes with zero tax sale evictions, 82% of people identified as white. 

Cook County encompasses 134 municipalities, the most well known being Chicago.

Sarah Brune, director of public policy at Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, Inc., a nonprofit organization that championed the task force, noted her organization "really wants to see a way for homeowners to pay monthly to repay their taxes and avoid going to the tax sale as long as they are current on their payments."

"Some homeowners have been impacted by rising property values," she said. "But for other people, it may just be a financial hardship where they're having a difficult time paying their taxes. This [initiative] would give them an opportunity to pay over a longer period of time, but still pay their taxes back in full." 

A report of the coalition's findings will be due no later than Nov. 15, 2023, after which the task force will be dissolved. 

According to the legislation passed in the state Senate, those brainstorming alternative payment plans must take into consideration "the impact of the payment plan option on homeowners, tax payers, local agencies responsible for the collection of property taxes, and local taxing districts." 

"We should do everything in our power to prevent the displacement of longtime Black and Brown homeowners in Cook County," said Peters in a written statement. "A monthly payment plan option for homeowners behind on taxes is an essential anti-displacement strategy in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods on the South and West sides of Chicago."

The ballooning of property valuations during the pandemic are now being reflected in higher property taxes, which has pinched the wallets of many homeowners.