After discovering that the DeStefano administration has ignored an order to help them stop foreclosures, aldermen are pushing for a 30-day moratorium on the city moving to take people’s homes.
The discovery took place this week at a meeting of the Board of Aldermen’s Tax Abatement Committee.
The committee called city Tax Collector Maurine Villani before it to discuss city foreclosures. The committee’s chairman, Michael Smart (pictured) of Wooster Square, recently discovered that the city is foreclosing on two of his constituents’ homes; one of the foreclosure sales is scheduled for May 22. Villani never told him about it. Under a May 18, 2009, aldermanic order, Villani’s office is supposed to let aldermen know when the city has filed for foreclosure against their constituents, so the aldermen can work with the homeowners to get help keeping their houses.
At Wednesday night’s committee hearing, aldermen learned that Villani hasn’t been telling anyone.
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So the committee voted for a proposal to stop the city from filing any new foreclosure suits or following through on already-filed suits on homeowner-occupied properties for 30 days while this all gets sorted out. The measure comes before the full Board of Aldermen Monday night. Morris Cove Alderwoman Arlene DePino (pictured) introduced the proposal.
The aldermen plan to seek unanimous consent for the proposal Monday night — meaning it could pass that night rather than spend weeks or months in committee.
“A lot of these [suits affect] seniors” who don’t know about help they can get, Michael Smart said. “A lot of people have been charged penalties [once the suits get filed].” He called the city’s failure to comply with the order “very disrespectful to the taxpayers and the Board of Aldermen.”
Smart had also asked Villani before the meeting to let the aldermen know how many foreclosures the city has filed since December. She didn’t have that information. The committee did receive a 25-page list of tax delinquencies, properties on which foreclosure suits could take place if people don’t pay up soon. The list had about 900 properties.
Asked why she hadn’t complied with the order to notify aldermen about pending foreclosures in their wards, Villani Thursday referred questions to mayoral spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga.
“There was a bit of a delay when she came on board” last year as tax collector, Mayorga said. “There was a bit of an IT [information technology] problem” as well.
Thursday Villani was already “meeting with the appropriate individuals to see what needs to be changed,” according to Mayorga. “She is fully aware of it and is working to mitigate it as we speak.”
Mayorga said the city didn’t have a position yet on the pending 30-day moratorium proposal.
West Rock Alderman Darnell Goldson said the city should focus the same kind of attention on preventing its own foreclosure actions as it does on preventing foreclosures by private lenders. The DeStefano administration formed a foreclosure-fighting task force called The ROOF Project with Yale Law School and the Greater New Haven Community Loan Fund.
“We’re doing hundreds of foreclosures a year. Why doesn’t ROOF have a coordinated effort to deal with these?” Goldson asked. “They don’t. They’re not going out of their way to figure out how to help, especially the seniors.”
ROOF Program Manager Eva Heintelzman said the walk-in clients the groups sees sometimes include people being foreclosed upon by the city. She said ROOF advises that they “work closely with the tax office.” She said the tax collector’s office is “generally willing to work” with people.
Meanwhile, the Tax Abatement Committee has scheduled a second hearing on this subject for April 26. Villani is scheduled to return, with more answers, and some back-up: the city’s controller, tax assessor, and corporation counsel are scheduled to accompany her.
King John is outa control.