Home Theft Via Uncle Sam
5th May 2022
Did you know that in some states, if you miss one tax payment, local politicians will take your home, sell it and keep all the profits?
Really.
Tawanda Hall was behind on her taxes. She was on a payment plan but had missed $900. She didn’t expect Southfield, Michigan, to take her entire house because of that. It was worth $286,000 more than what she owed.
“I’m still in shock,” says Tawanda Hall in my new video. “They took my whole house, my whole family’s livelihood.”
John Bursch, a lawyer for the county, says while this practice may sound unfair (yes, it sure does), “It’s also unfair to force those who pay their taxes to subsidize those who don’t.”
“I pay taxes!” Hall responds. She works as a nursing assistant. “I lift people. I bathe people. I work hard.”
When Hall found out she was going to lose her home, she tried to pay off the debt.
“I went to the mayor’s office, I went down to the city county building,” she says. “They didn’t want our money. They said no.”
They wanted her house.
Southfield is a suburb of Detroit; it’s mayor is a Democrat (and presumably the rest of the city government is likewise).