An elderly widow won’t lose her home of 42 years after all — thanks to a little-known tax program, and an alderman (pictured) who helped her find it.
At a full board meeting last week, aldermen approved a resolution allowing Mildred Harper to defer payment on $14,590 in unpaid taxes dating back from 2003 — a tax bill that would have forced her out of her home.
Harper, who’s 71, lives in a light green, century-old, one-family house at 255 Starr St. in Newhallville. (She declined to be photographed.) She and her husband bought the home in 1967. Now widowed, she lives on a fixed income, working a part-time job to make ends meet. Over the past few years, she struggled and got behind on her tax payments.
The unpaid bill caught up to her in June, when the city slapped her with a foreclosure suit. Harper didn’t want her home to end up like the house next door, which has remained boarded up since the city took it by foreclosure in 2006.
She turned to an alderman for help.
Newhallville Alderman Charlie Blango (pictured) said he was door-knocking for his recent state representative primary campaign when he came across Harper. He knew her from growing up in Newhallville. He used to eat meals at her home. She told him about her situation and asked his help.
Blango set up a meeting with Harper and Boise Kimber, the reverend at her church. They brainstormed how to help the woman, who has been a mainstay of the church community for so many years. Blango reached back to his days in charge of the aldermanic Tax Abatement Committee, which gives tax breaks to eligible home and business owners.
“I realized that she was qualified for a lot of the programs,” Blango said. She hadn’t heard about the city’s elderly tax freeze program.
A Well-Kept Secret
Nor had she heard about the city’s well-kept secret: A tax deferral program for low-income homeowners. Taxpayers under a certain income threshold qualify for a tax deferral if they demonstrate they can’t pay the bill. The program is seldom used: This year, four people have been granted the deferral — and that number is high compared to years past.
Blango took Harper to City Hall, where she sat down with staff of the Board of Aldermen to apply.
To apply for the program, residents have to show a list of their assets, their income, and their expenses, according to Beaver Hill Alderman Moti Sandman, who chairs the Tax Abatement Committee. The program is used predominantly by seniors who already own their homes. Residents have to apply yearly to continue to receive the benefit.
If they qualify for the program, their taxes are deferred until the home changes hands. In other words, the city puts a lien on the property and recoups the back taxes, with 6 percent interest, when the home is sold.
Harper’s home (pictured) is currently appraised at $77,140. So she owes a total $3,256 in taxes per year. She brought in papers and convinced the tax collector that her expenses were too high to pay the bill. Then she went before the tax abatement panel and emerged with its blessing.
Tax Freeze Underutilized, Too
At City Hall, Harper also found out that she qualified for a program the city passed in 2007 to make sure rising property taxes didn’t force seniors out of their homes. Under the elderly tax freeze, seniors can freeze their tax bills at their FY06-07 amounts and pay the rest when they sell their home. Harper found out it was too late to apply for this year’s tax bill: The deadline is in October. The freeze was not available retroactively. But the deferral was.
Harper was able to put off paying the $14,589.99 she owed in taxes. Added to this amount on the city lien will be back interest, recalculated to 6 percent per year, and any foreclosure cost incurred by the city.
Best of all for Harper, she kept her home.
That means the city didn’t pursue a foreclosure suit that would have left another vacant building on a Newhallville street, ready to attract crime. A rise in foreclosures is already bringing an uptick in burglaries and arson, according to the mayor and chief of police. The city prevented those outcomes, and, in a neighborhood Habitat for Humanity is trying to stabilize by building owner-occupied homes, found a way to keep a longtime resident on the block.
Harper’s case met quick, unanimous approval from the Board of Aldermen Thursday. It also served as a lesson for aldermen, most of whom weren’t familiar with the tax deferral program.
After explaining what the program was, Sandman said the case has shown the city that more outreach needs to be done.
Harper was active in her church, but no one there told her about the tax freeze or deferal programs, Sandman said. Had she been better informed, she might not have been brought to the brink of losing her home.
City officials who testified before Sandman’s committee concurred that more outreach needs to be done, he said. Most people who applied for the tax freeze were informed at mayors night’s in or out, or at senior centers.
The word might not be getting out to the people that need it the most, Sandman said.
“We need to do a more effective job of getting the word out.”
Harper wasn’t there to see her burden lifted Thursday night. Reached at her home, she declined an interview.
Blango was “elated” he could help her, he said. “It’s one of them things that is my civic duty.”
Previous Independent coverage of New Haven’s foreclosure crisis:
‚Ä¢ Bank Replaces “Gunshot Alley” Landlord
‚Ä¢ Foreclosure Bill OK’d
• Singh Seeks Home For A Song
‚Ä¢ Networking Replaces Foreclosure at Christy’s
‚Ä¢ Foreclosure Bargain — & Renewal — Jeopardized
• Bank Outbids Akbar; Family May Keep Home
‚Ä¢ “So Don’t Worry About Pablo”
• Bankruptcy Postpones Foreclosure
• Next-Door Foreclosures, 53 Years Apart
• They Met On Foreclosure Way
• Little Garage Draws Big Bids
• A 2nd Chance on Lewis Street
‚Ä¢ Foreclosure Attracts New Breed of “Specialist”
‚Ä¢ In Foreclosures, Judge’s Hands Tied
• Home Saved From Foreclosure. Cycle, Too
• A House For Precious?
• Deutsche Bank Grabs Dixwell Condo
• Reluctant Bidder Snags F. Haven Bargain
‚Ä¢ Well, There’s Always Powerball
• Neighbors Retrieve Home From Bank
• Somebody Has Plans For Bassett Street
• Foreclosed, the Khennavongs Leave the Santanas
• Foreclosure Steal May Be Too Good
• 2nd Foreclosure in 3 Months Dims Bright St.
‚Ä¢ After Foreclosure, W’ville Owner Still Hopes To Sell
‚Ä¢ He’s Not Buying, Yet
• Quiet Foreclosure on Porter Street
• 3 Minutes Too Late
• Historic Gambardella Property Foreclosed
•2 Homes Lost, 1 Gained
‚Ä¢ “Everybody’s Got To Eat”
• More Foreclosures, More Signs
‚Ä¢ Foreclosure Sale Benefits Archie Moore’s
• Rescue Squad Swings Into Action
• A Bidder Shows Up
‚Ä¢ Bank Beats Tanya’s Bid
• Westville Auction Draws A Crowd
• DeStefano: Foreclosure Plan Ready
• Can They Help?
‚Ä¢ “We Should Over-Regulate These Bastards”
• Rosa Hears of Rescues
• WPCA Grilled on Foreclosures
‚Ä¢ WPCA’s Targets Struggle To Dig Out
• Sue The Subprimers?
• WPCA Hearing Delayed
‚Ä¢ Megna’s “Blood Boils” at WPCA Tactics
• Goldfield Wants WPCA Answers
• 2 Days, 8 Foreclosure Suits
• WPCA Goes On Foreclosure Binge
• A Guru Weighs In
• WPCA Targets Church
• Subprime Mess Targeted
‚Ä¢ Renters Caught In Foreclosure King’s Fall
‚Ä¢ She’s One Of 1,150 In The Foreclosure Mill
‚Ä¢ Foreclosures Threaten Perrotti’s Empire
‚Ä¢“I’m Not Going To Lay Down And Let Them Take My House”
‚Ä¢ Struggling Couple Sues Over “Scam”
To learn about the ROOF Project, a community-wide effort to help New Haveners navigate the foreclosure crisis, click here.
The following links are to various materials and brochures designed to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.
How to prepare a complaint to the Department of Banking; Department of Banking Online Assistance Form; Connecticut Department of Banking, Avoiding Foreclosure; FDIC Consumer News; Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut, Inc; Connecticut Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service.
For lawyer referral services in New Haven, call 562-5750 or visit this website. For the Department of Social Services (DSS) Eviction Foreclosure Prevention Program (EFPP), call 211 to see which community-based organization in the state serves your town.
Click here for information on foreclosure prevention efforts from Empower New Haven.
According to the city on-line tax records the total back taxes on this property=
Total Amount Due: $24,370.06, Not $14,589.99 the article above reports.
Account ID: 17491
Owner Name: HARPER PAUL & MILDRED R JR
Address: 255 STARR
NEW HAVEN , CT 06511
Parcel ID: 286-0451-04200
Second Owner Name:
Plat Book Page: /
Ward:
Assessed Value: $77,140
Exemptions: $21,294
Taxable Value: $55,846
Current Year Taxes Billed 2007
Billed taxes: $1,892.26
Current and Back Tax Principle Due: $13,823.86
Total Interest, Penalties, and Collections Fees: $10,546.20
Total Amount Due: $24,370.06
Therefore, it appears there is much more work Blango needs to do in behalf of this resident.
The next thing Blango has to do is have the name of her deceased husband remove for the deed so she might qualify for 100% of the elderly tax freeze. Second Blango should have Ms. Harper apply for the State of CT. property tax deferral, which is available to the elderly annually, when open for application.
"Blango was "elated" he could help her, he said. "It's one of them things that is my civic duty."
Not so fast Blango, the jobs not done yet, your civic duty is incomplete.