Elorza Pushes Forward With Tax Sale Auction of More Than 100 Providence Homes During Pandemic

Elorza Pushes Forward With Tax Sale Auction of More Than 100 Providence Homes During Pandemic

Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza — who positions himself as the "compassionate" mayor -- is moving forward with the tax sale auction of homes in the city -- that for some, owe less than $500.

On Wednesday morning, more than 150 properties, of which more than 100 are residential properties, will go up for auction due to being late in their taxes.

SEE THE CITY OF PROVIDENCE'S LIST OF PROPERTY TO BE AUCTIONED BELOW

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Recent GoLocal exposés have uncovered that Pawtucket tax and water sales are destroying the lives of local families ranging from new immigrants chasing the American dream of owning a home to the case of a dying man and his cancerous wive devastated by chemotherapy.

While more than 100,000 Rhode Islanders out of work and a recession is gripping the state, Elorza has refused to delay the tax sales despite pleas by members of the City Council.

Calls for Delay During Pandemic

“We have asked him to delay the tax sale. [We] don’t think this is a good time and it needs to be postponed,” said Providence City Council President Sabina Matos.

“This is a bad time to do a tax sale,” said Matos.

Nationally, in July a record number of Americans failed to make their housing payments on time, according to Apartmentlist.com -- 32 percent of Americans did not make a full on-time housing payment in July, up slightly from 30 percent in June.

Elorza’s administration defends the tax sale.

“Any properties listed as part of the tax sale have outstanding tax balances from last calendar year, prior to COVID-19. No one has requested properties be removed from the sale due to COVID-19 related issues,” said Emily Crowell, spokesperson for Elorza.

“Additionally, if a property's taxes are sold at tax sale, the owner has a year to remove the lien on the property through the City. This tax sale was delayed in order to create a platform conducive to the COVID-19 response (digital) and is the smallest of the last 3 years: 336 in 2018, 239 in 2019, 160 in 2020,” added Crowell. Some of the properties that have outstanding tax bills are commercial properties that owe more than $10,000. But, the Elorza administration has moved forward to lump both commercial and residential properties together for auction. In New York, legislators are working to block Mayor Bill de Blasio's September tax sale auction. 

But Crowell refused to answer questions about the timing and concerns about conducting the auction during an economic crisis.

City Council President Pro Tempore Michael Correia has also called on the Mayor to delay the tax sale.

“This is not the right thing to do. It not right to do a tax sale in these times,” said Correia.

He said that one of his priorities is to have the tax sales delayed and the city’s policies revamped.

Providence and RI Housing Crisis

From March to July, the United Way of Rhode Island’s 211 helpline received a total of 112,336 calls for assistance and nearly a third of those calls were for housing issues — a total of 35,381.

The calls were for rental assistance, shelter inquiries, foreclosure and eviction prevention, and other housing issues, according to the agency.

“In truth, these numbers really aren’t all that surprising – we knew Rhode Island had a housing crisis on its hands even before COVID," Cortney Nicolato, president and CEO of United Wa, told GoLocal earlier this week.

"So once you factor in the pandemic’s unprecedented impact on our economy and the tens of thousands who lost their jobs during a short amount of time, you have a perfect storm that’s created need among individuals and families who previously had stable homes, and for who the existing housing crisis was not impacting at the time," she added.