A law meant to bust blight puts Black and Asian American property owners at risk

[FakeNoose]

Philly Inquirer link: https://www.inquirer.com/real-estate/philadelphia-act-135-conservatorship-scioli-turco-penn-law-study-20231121.html

When a house fire tore through the Cox family home in Powelton Village last Christmas Eve, displacing 97-year-old Elizabeth Cox and her 71-year-old son, Warren, it seemed like the worst that could happen. Then three months later, while repairs at the house were still in early stages, the family got a notice in the mail: A nonprofit group had filed a petition in court to seize control of their home as a conservator, claiming that it was blighted and abandoned.

“They were devastated,” said Pilla Parker, Cox’s granddaughter, who found herself in charge of fighting the petition. “They just lost everything. … My grandmother on the coldest day of the year was carried outside with nothing but the clothes on her back.”

Parker learned that the petition for property conservatorship was made possible by a Pennsylvania law known as Act 135, which enables nonprofit organizations to take over abandoned properties, bring them up to code, and sell them, taking a substantial fee.

Nonprofits have filed more than 570 such petitions just in Philadelphia. A new analysis by the Advocacy for Racial and Civil Justice Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania’s law school concludes that the conservatorships have come at the expense of vulnerable property owners. The researchers found that petitions were disproportionately filed against Black and Asian American property owners, and in areas at high risk of displacement due to rising real estate values. .... The law was passed in 2008, but usage took off in Philadelphia after it was revised in 2014.

- more at link -



How is it these so-called "nonprofits" are making so much profit?
When they win, it means the property owners lose. Rinse and repeat.

[Axelrods_Typewriter]

1. Since this is done disproportionately to Black and Asian Americans, I wonder who is behind the nonprofits.

Seems to me that they may be racially-motivated.

[FakeNoose]

2. That's possible, but it's also possible that they're being treated as hardship cases

The examples given in the OP link, such as the family with the burned-down house. They were putting all their efforts and resources into rebuilding the house, but that takes time. Only a few months after the fire, the vultures swooped in and had the property declared a public nuisance or whatever, and bought it for pennies on the dollar. The property was worth way more than that, but the family didn't have extra cash to hire a lawyer and fight it.

Medical bankruptcies are causing some families to either abandon property, or sell it cheaply and quickly. This article is about the vultures who swoop in and take advantage of distressed situations and make a big profit from it. Often it's the blighted areas of the city where the bargains can be found. That doesn't make it right.