C
ity Council member Pierina Ana Sanchez has introduced a bill to revamp the city's third-party transfer program, which transfers delinquent properties to temporary owners who prepare them for sale. The program has faced criticism for disproportionately targeting homeowners of color. Six years after its initial implementation ended, the new proposal aims to address some of these concerns.

    The bill eliminates the "block pickup" provision, which allowed non-distressed properties to be transferred if another building on their block was distressed. Instead, the program will target properties with high levels of unpaid debt and hazardous violations. Buildings will be selected based on a scoring system that considers both factors.

    Properties with delinquent tax debt greater than three years' worth of the owner's tax liability or larger rentals and cooperatives with more than one year's worth of tax debt will be ranked from highest to lowest amount of arrears. A separate ranking will consider the number of hazardous or immediately hazardous violations issued within the past three years. The buildings with the highest scores will be eligible for transfer.

    The bill also includes a provision allowing tenants of a building facing foreclosure to take over the property, including Housing Development Fund Corporation cooperatives. However, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development has expressed concerns about the bill's requirements for notifying owners that they are facing foreclosure, which could be infeasible given the agency's resources.

    Sanchez's proposal appears to address a U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring any property seizure program to return surplus proceeds to the original owner if the property's value exceeds the amount of taxes owed. The bill still needs to go through the legislative process before it can become law.