Community Voices + Policy Change Are Powering Neighborhood Investment

For over 20 years, Florence Spann and her husband have spent their time and resources maintaining not just their own property (a two-story corner home across from Ogden Park in West Englewood), but also the two empty and long-abandoned lots next door. Not a single square foot of the vacant land is technically hers, yet Spann keeps it looking pristine because she wants others to see the beauty of the neighborhood she’s lived in and loved for so many years.

Spann is one of many Chicagoans whose dreams of buying and improving abandoned properties in their neighborhoods have been blocked by Cook County’s complex property tax sale system. For years, a loophole in the system known as “sales-in-error” has advantaged private investor tax buyers, allowing them to profit off local governments while stripping wealth from communities and keeping tens of thousands of vacant properties trapped in an endless cycle of disrepair.

The loophole also has affected people like DaJuan Robinson, owner of DNA Construction, who successfully partnered with four other Black developers on a “Buy Back the Block” initiative in West Woodlawn. Robinson believes fixing the broken property tax sale system would create thousands more opportunities for community developers like him to reinvest in their neighborhoods.

Now, thanks to a set of state policy reforms championed by Spann, Robinson, the Trust, and many others, which were signed into law in 2023, the system is poised for change. This means more abandoned parcels will have a better chance of ending up in the hands of people like Spann and Robinson: dedicated residents and community developers who want to use the properties to strengthen their neighborhoods and build community wealth.

“We would like to purchase the vacant lots next door and turn them into a garden or a playground for our grandson.”

Florence Spann
Chicago Resident

Why Reforms Were Needed

• ~50,000 vacant or abandoned properties in Cook County, largely in disinvested neighborhoods on Chicago’s South and West sides and in the south suburbs.
• ~30,000 properties currently stuck in Cook County’s Scavenger Sale system (a biennial auction where property tax debt and acquisition rights are sold to the highest bidder).
• Just 7 percent of Scavenger Sale properties have actually been developed since 2007, meaning tax buyers are not investing in communities and most properties purchased through this process continue to exist as vacant lots that contribute to community instability.
•  $277.6 million in property tax revenue that should have benefited communities was instead recouped by tax buyers between 2015 and 2022 (including $27.7 million in interest).

What the 2023 Reforms Will Do

• Close the sale-in-error loophole.
• Make the Scavenger Sale optional.
• Make redevelopment possible for the 30,000 properties stuck in the sale system.
• Make it easier for communities to reinvest in their own growth and development.
• Cut in half the cost for homeowners trying to pay off property tax debt, so that more people can keep their homes and fewer properties enter the sale system to begin with.

“These reforms are a huge win for community-driven revitalization and a testament to the power of partnership.” IANNA KACHORIS, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF POLICY AND ADVOCACY, THE CHICAGO COMMUNITY TRUST

Ianna Kachoris
Senior Director of Policy & Advocacy
The Chicago Community Trust

Working for Change Together

In 2019, the Cook County Land Bank Authority approached the Trust for help with assessing challenges in the county’s property tax sale system. The Trust commissioned an initial study by the University of Chicago Center for Municipal Finance, whose findings set the stage for the formation of a working group led by the Trust. After three years of engaging stakeholders, building the case for change, drafting a proposed bill, and advocating for its passage by the state legislature, the coalition’s efforts paid off when the law was enacted in 2023. The Trust will continue to identify strategic policy opportunities where our voice and leadership can add fuel to our communities’ existing efforts and help effect transformational change for our region.

The Partners

• Center for Community Progress
• The Chicago Community Trust + City of Chicago
• CityScape
•  Cook County Land Bank Authority
• Cook County Treasurer’s Office
• DePaul Institute for Housing Studies
• Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago
• Southland Development Authority
• University of Chicago Center for Municipal Finance