Property Tax Sales Reform: What it Means & What’s Next 

Public Act 103-0555, which reforms the Illinois Property Tax Sale system by closing loopholes that prevent blighted properties from redevelopment and allowing local governments to intervene to save abandoned properties, went into effect on January 1, 2024. The Chicago Community Trust convened a coalition that drafted the legislation and included community developers, experts, affordable housing advocates, and municipalities statewide who worked together to advocate for its passage. 

The work to reform the tax sale system began with research commissioned by the Trust’s Catalyzing Neighborhood Investment team to understand how the Cook County Scavenger Sale impacted the region. Then, working with the Trust’s Advocating for Policy Change team, we convened multi-sector partners to identify and advance administrative and legislative reforms to the current property tax sale.  

But passing legislation is just an initial step. In this Q&A, Edwin Tobar, a Catalyzing Neighborhood Investment program manager, and Ianna Kachoris, senior director of policy and advocacy, discuss the potential the new law has unlocked and what needs to happen now that it is enacted. 

What does this legislation mean for disinvested communities? 

Edwin Tobar: The property tax system has put disinvested communities at a disadvantage when it comes to fixing their own issues and dealing with vacant land and distressed properties. This legislation closes some loopholes and creates a pathway for residents to be the beneficiaries of the land in their communities. It also creates an environment that can increase investment as more properties and assets are available in the community.  

Ianna Kachoris: This legislation opens the door to development by neighbors, community-based developers, and others trying to reinvigorate community investment. Previously, the process locked properties up in the system, contributing to a cycle of vacancy and abandonment. Localities can now step in and intervene earlier before a property is vacant or abandoned. When properties fall into disrepair, they drag down nearby property values, create safety concerns, and cost municipalities the care and stewardship of those properties and lost revenue. 

There are an estimated 50,000 vacant and abandoned parcels in Cook County. How will these reforms help to transform them into viable uses? 

ET: The legislation isn’t the ultimate solution, but by making more properties available for development, it increases opportunities for communities to have amenities they miss out on, like grocery stores, restaurants, and open spaces. 

IK: We’ve long supported community developers and developers of color in communities with a disproportionate share of properties caught in the tax sale system. These are largely in Black and Latinx communities in the south suburbs and on Chicago’s South and West sides. These developers will now be able to do more of the things they know how to do. It will eliminate some key roadblocks to redevelopment.  

Now that the law has been enacted, what needs to happen next? 

IK: We’re thrilled the law passed. It was a lot of work bringing folks together to ask what the system needs to look like and how we can stem the tide of properties into the scavenger sale, in particular. Our priority now is implementation. We are focused on ensuring the various county agencies and others who play a role can work together to create an equitable and fair process by which properties can be redeveloped. 

We often think about policy change as passing legislation, but it does not end there. So many policies are embedded in processes and how we design systems to work in practice. That’s where we are now, working with our Center for Community Progress partners to provide technical assistance to county agencies to create a new, more equitable system. 

ET: There’s also the question of what needs to happen once we get the land and make it available. The Trust will continue supporting efforts to get this land developed. We will continue investing in these communities and the residents trying to do the work in their neighborhoods to bring viable uses to fruition. We’ll do this through initiatives like the Pre-Development Fund and the Flexible Funding Program that support neighborhood organizations working to learn what communities need and bring those things in. 

This legislation alone will only solve some issues with our property tax sale system. What other kinds of reforms would you say are needed? 

IK: We started this journey looking at the far end of the property tax sale system: once properties have long been through the system, they have become vacant or abandoned, and the market for those properties is suffering. But we need to think more about the front end of the system, preventing homeowners who get behind on property taxes from defaulting on their payments to the county.  

At the same time we championed Senate Bill 1675, there was another effort to create a property tax payment plan so that folks could pay that lump sum, ordinarily due twice a year, in more installments. A fair and well-structured payment plan can reduce the likelihood that folks might find their properties in the tax sale process. That campaign, led by Trust grant recipients and partners in the Housing Policy Task Force, created a Property Tax Payment Plan Task Force. It’s made up of municipal leaders, county agencies, advocates, housing providers, developers, and other taxing districts to think about how we create a payment plan that counties, particularly Cook County, would be required to advance. Sen. Rob Peters and Rep. Deborah Meyers Martin chair the task force, and I’m fortunate to sit on it. It’s a very thoughtful process to consider what that structure needs to look like within the constraints of the current property tax sale system. Part of that effort focuses on how we help homeowners protect the wealth and equity they’ve built in their homes and ensure that our government systems are set up to enable them to preserve that wealth and not create onerous processes, debt, and fees that weigh down that opportunity. 

What are the benefits for the people who live in disinvested communities? 

ET: Historically, disinvested neighborhoods, Black and Latinx neighborhoods have been used for the resources they have, particularly land. One of the most significant benefits of this law is that people in disinvested communities will have access to that land again and prescribe what they want in their neighborhood. 

IK: Vacant land is such a visible thing in communities. Opening opportunities for people to reclaim that land as a community asset creates a greater sense of safety, determination, and control over what’s happening in their communities.  

We want more people living in neighborhoods, which leads to greater commercial activity. This is just one step in getting to that broader vision of what it means to have a vibrant and thriving community.