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ILLINOIS IS THE LAST STATE STILL UNLAWFULLY STRIPPING WEALTH FROM
HOMEOWNERS IN TAX FORECLOSURES  
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Emeline Posner (Investigative Project on Race and Equity), Carlos
Ballesteros (Injustice Watch)
May 16, 2025
Chicago Sun-Times
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_ The Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional a decades-old practice of
taking every cent of people’s home equity over unpaid property
taxes. Experts say Illinois lags behind other states with a
segregation-era law that mostly affects Black communities. _

Velma Lewis is one of hundreds of Black homeowners a year in Cook
County who have lost their homes and the equity they’ve built in
them to private investors in tax foreclosures under a segregation-era
Illinois law., Brian Ernst / Sun-Times

 

When Cook County sheriff’s deputies burst into the Maywood home of
74-year-old Velma Lewis with a battering ram, it wasn’t because she
had committed a crime. Nor was there a warrant for her arrest.

It was because she’d fallen so far behind on her property taxes.

A decade ago, Lewis — whose mother bought the two-flat in 1961 and
had long since paid it off — decided to replace her tattered roof
instead of paying $6,200 in property taxes.

After she failed to pay the taxes for another nine months, Cook County
officials auctioned off her tax debt to a private investor, as
required under Illinois law.

Retired and living on a fixed income, Lewis says she was saving to get
current on her taxes but fell even further behind.

The investor foreclosed on Lewis’ home, and, three years later,
sheriff’s deputies showed up at her front door.

“They told me I had to get out, and they were searching the house,
asking me did I have any guns, and ‘If you got any medicine, get
your medicine,’ ” Lewis says.

Velma Lewis had to buy back her Maywood home from an investor who
bought it at a property tax foreclosure sale. Abel Uribe for Injustice
Watch

The investor who paid off her delinquent property taxes took the deed
to Lewis’ home, which was worth around $180,000.

Lewis walked away with nothing.

“I can’t dwell on it too long ’cause it’ll make me cry,” she
says.

For decades, homeowners in predominantly Black neighborhoods across
Cook County have lost homes the way Lewis did — over unpaid property
taxes, an investigation by the Investigative Project on Race and
Equity and Injustice Watch has found.

Some say they fell behind after losing a job, others because of
emergency expenses or debilitating health issues like Alzheimer’s
disease. Some just couldn’t keep up.

Since 2019, more than 1,000 owner-occupied homes in Cook County —
including more than 125 homes owned by older people — were taken
through property tax foreclosure, the news organizations found.

Illinois is the only state that hasn’t adopted reforms aimed at
giving homeowners who lose their homes this way their fair share of
the tax sale proceeds.

While owner-occupied homes lost to tax foreclosure represent only a
tiny fraction of Cook County’s 1.5 million residential properties,
they are highly concentrated in predominantly Black communities like
Roseland and Englewood in the city of Chicago and in Chicago Heights,
records show.

More than half of all homes lost this way were taken after an initial
property tax debt of $1,600 or less, records show. A dozen started out
owing less than $200.

Collectively, the initial debt that cost people their homes totaled
$2.3 million. But an analysis of Cook County assessment data shows
these homes have a combined estimated market value of more than $108
million.

All of the equity tied up in their homes — which, as with Lewis,
often was built over generations — went largely to a small network
of private investors who took over the deeds after paying the
delinquent property taxes.

This massive transfer of generational wealth from families in Black
neighborhoods to affluent investors has long been criticized by
housing advocates and civil rights leaders as a racist practice that
has drained wealth from Black Americans since they came to Chicago
from the Jim Crow South in pursuit of the American dream, including
homeownership.

Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously decided in a
Minnesota case that the practice violated what’s known as the
takings clause in the Bill of Rights.

Kileen Lindgren, a legal policy manager for Pacific Legal Foundation,
which argued that case for the homeowner, says Illinois’ tax sale
policy is the “most abusive property tax forfeiture system” in the
country.

“The court ruled the government could take what it was owed and no
more, but Illinois keeps taking,” she says. “They’re clinging to
a system that just isn’t protecting people.”

For decades, civil rights leaders have tried to persuade Illinois
lawmakers to eliminate or limit the power of third-party investors,
and following a tax foreclosure, give homeowners their fair share of
the equity they’d built up.

They were blocked by investors — tax buyers — and their lobbyists.

Tax buyers even helped write the laws that send millions of dollars
their way.

“These very industries are preying upon people who are already
facing extreme hardships because there’s money to be made off of
them,” says Andrew Kahrl, a University of Virginia historian and
author of the book “The Black Tax,” published last year, on the
tax lien industry and its impact on Black communities in Chicago and
across the country. “It’s really disturbing in its own respect.
But it’s even more disturbing when we recognize that our local
governments are actually willing partners in these schemes.”

A half-dozen of the most active tax buyers and their attorneys
declined interview requests.

Representatives of the tax buyers’ lobby groups say they were
invited by lawmakers to more quickly recover tax revenue to fund
services like public schools.

“Does it benefit the local government? The answer is yes,” says
Brad Westover, executive director of the National Tax Lien
Association, “because the government receives the funds that they
were owed so they could still pay the police and the fire and the
public schools and still cut the lawns at the local park and still
build the roads and bridges.”

The Supreme Court ruling has spawned lawsuits by homeowners throughout
Illinois and reinvigorated critics who want lawmakers to reconsider
reform efforts.

Measures now in Springfield seek to address the Illinois tax
foreclosure system and provide for homeowners to get back at least
some of the money they are owed. None of the proposals would eliminate
the involvement of the third-party players.

Gov. JB Pritzker, who has touted his record on racial equity, declined
an interview request.

His spokesperson says Illinois is in compliance with the Supreme Court
ruling, though some Democratic lawmakers pushing for reforms — as
well as legal experts — disagree.

“I believe, and I think that many others in this space believe, that
Illinois’ current tax sale system is out of compliance,” says
state Rep. Will Guzzardi, D-Chicago. “That puts us in real legal
liability. The right thing to do is to make sure that homeowners get
as much of their equity as they can at the end of this process. And
our current system doesn’t do that.”

‘Jail or … take their property’

Illinois legislators created the tax foreclosure system in 1951, at
the height of the Second Great Migration, when millions of Black
Americans left the South for economic opportunities in the North.

The law — drafted with input from tax buyer Allan Blair — made it
more profitable for investors to foreclose after buying tax liens
throughout the state. It allowed Blair and other tax buyers to take
full ownership of properties when taxpayers did not pay off a
delinquent tax bill within two years.

“There are only two ways you can handle delinquent taxpayers,”
Blair told the Chicago Tribune in 1974 — five years before he died
— about the law he helped draft. “You can put them in jail, or you
can take their property away. Now, I ask you which is better?”

Even as news stories and columns shined a light on cases of mostly
older, widowed and homeowners with disabilities who lost homes under
the system, lawyers argued in court that the law could be unfair even
to homeowners who understood the consequences of falling behind on
their taxes.

In 1969, homeowners’ attorney Marshall Patner likened one case to
sentencing “a man to death for stealing a loaf of bread” by taking
his home over such a small debt, Kahrl says in his book.

By 1970, outrage spurred lawmakers to create a special fund to
compensate some homeowners who lost their homes to tax foreclosure.

But this “indemnity fund” was filled with obstacles, and few
homeowners took advantage. To be eligible for a payout, homeowners had
to sue the county and prove they had legitimate reasons for not paying
their taxes, such as a family emergency or other hardship.

While the 1951 law opened the door for a massive transfer of wealth to
the investors, a 1970 change of language in the state constitution
effectively guaranteed a place at the table for tax buyers. Legal
experts say removing tax buyers today from the process would require a
constitutional amendment, an expensive and time-consuming process.

In 1976, a legislative commission condemned the “unnecessary
harshness” of the law, writing, “The only function of total
forfeiture is the enrichment of tax buyers at the expense of a very
few tragic victims.”

It recommended that, rather than rely on the underutilized indemnity
fund, the state should introduce an auction process to guarantee the
return of at least some equity to all homeowners.

But lawmakers didn’t implement the proposals.

Attempts at reforms continued over the next 50 years, targeting the
foreclosure process and the high interest rates tax buyers charge
homeowners. But most fell short.

The indemnity fund remained the main source of relief for homeowners.
Decades later, the fund is insolvent. The few homeowners who are
approved for payouts have to wait years to see any money,
the Illinois Answers Project
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in 2022.

Between 2016 and 2024, the bulk of the fund’s money was signed over
in advance to investors, Cook County treasurer’s office data shows.

A landmark ruling

In 2023, a case involving an older Minnesota homeowner who lost her
home under similar circumstances to what happened to Lewis became a
landmark Supreme Court decision that guarantees homeowners their fair
share in tax foreclosure cases.

The 9-0 ruling found that Minnesota’s practice of selling homes for
unpaid tax debt and pocketing the difference violated the Fifth
Amendment’s takings clause, which bars governments from taking
private property without just compensation.

“A taxpayer who loses her $40,000 house to the state to fulfill a
$15,000 tax debt has made a far greater contribution to the public
than she owed,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the decision.
“The taxpayer must render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, but no
more.”

More than a dozen state legislatures have passed reforms since the
Minnesota ruling, though not Illinois.

The history of failed reforms to the Illinois tax sale system
Over the decades, many efforts to protect homeowners from losing their
homes and equity to tax foreclosure have fallen short.

Illinois tax sale system established
1872
The Illinois Revenue Act of 1872 permits investors, known as tax
buyers, to purchase property tax liens when tax bills go unpaid. But
the law prevents investors from obtaining a clear title.

Government strengthens foreclosure powers for private tax buyers
1951
A new law, signed by Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson, allows private
investors to take full ownership of a property when the homeowner
cannot pay off a delinquent tax lien. The law is drafted in part by
Allan Blair, a powerful Chicago lawyer and real estate investor. The
law invites more speculators to buy tax liens at the annual auctions.

Proposal attacks ‘tax vultures’
1963
After a homeowner in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood loses a home to a
private investor over a tax bill of around $900, there is a public
backlash. Critics propose legislation to eliminate profiteering “tax
vultures” from the process. Under the plan, counties would handle
tax foreclosures and collection, and any profits from the sale of a
home after the debt is satisfied would be returned to the homeowner.
The bill ultimately fails.

Bills to give homeowners access to equity fail
1969
Illinois legislators, including Rep. Harold Washington and Sen.
Richard Newhouse, again propose the elimination of tax buyers from the
foreclosure process. Under their bill, government officials would
handle all property tax foreclosures. Following the sale of a home at
auction, net proceeds would be returned to the former homeowner.
Again, the proposal ultimately fails.

Lawsuit challenges legality of tax sale
1969
Attorneys representing West Side homeowners Louis and Doretta
Balthazar argue Illinois’ tax sale law unconstitutionally and
unfairly deprives homeowners of their homes. The case goes to the U.S.
Supreme Court on appeal, but justices agree with the district court,
ruling the statute may be “oppressive” but is not
unconstitutional. The Balthazars lose their home to Allan Blair, the
tax buyer who helped write the 1951 law. Ultimately, the Balthazars
buy back their home.

Outcry grows over impacts of lost homes
1969 — 1979
Over the course of a decade, newspapers publish dozens of articles
scrutinizing the practices of private tax buyers, highlighting the
impacts of tax sales and tax foreclosures on Illinois homeowners —
especially senior homeowners. Op-ed writers suggest weak laws and
apathetic lawmakers are ultimately responsible for the lost
generational wealth.

Legislators create ‘indemnity fund’
1970
Reacting to prolonged criticism of the tax foreclosure system,
Illinois lawmakers establish a fund they say will help some homeowners
recoup a portion of their homes’ value following tax foreclosures.
However, advocates argue the obstacles to receive a payout from the
so-called “indemnity fund” are often prohibitive and unfair.
Homeowners must file a lawsuit and prove their taxes were unpaid
through “no fault of their own.”

Evanston resident loses her home — and buys it back
1971 — 1974
A high-profile case involving Lillian Ware — who lost her Evanston
bungalow to tax buyer Allan Blair over a tax bill of around $40 —
winds its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Her attorney argues it was
unfair for Blair to take her home. The high court rules against Ware,
but the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
helps her buy back her home.

State legislative commission urges reforms
1976
After the Lillian Ware case, the Illinois Legislative Investigating
Commission issues a report condemning the state’s tax foreclosure
law and calling for revisions to give homeowners proceeds from tax
sales. Again, the recommendations go nowhere.

County official files tax sale lawsuit
1998
South Side homeowner Mary Lowe is hospitalized, and doesn’t receive
notices her tax debt was sold. The home goes into foreclosure. The
court-appointed Cook County Office of the Public Guardian files a case
on her behalf. The U.S. Supreme Court finds her rights were violated.
However, the Illinois Supreme Court declines to revisit its earlier
decision. The Lowe family loses their home.

Pappas encourages competition among tax buyers
1998 — 2000
Newly elected Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas — whose office
oversees tax lien auctions — adopts a new policy aimed at preventing
collusion among private investors, who she suspects are working
together to maximize interest rates they charge property owners after
purchasing delinquent taxes. The policy is challenged by the tax buyer
lobby, but the Illinois Supreme Court rules in favor of Pappas.

Jesse Jackson weighs in on senior foreclosures
2000
Jesse Jackson of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition urges Illinois lawmakers
to change tax sale law to protect senior homeowners. He speaks out
following media reports of a 76-year-old widow who lost her West Side
home to tax foreclosure. Although Jackson works with Cook County
officials to ensure the woman stays in her home, his calls for more
sweeping reforms go nowhere.

Bill to protect homeowners with disabilities fails
2004 — 2005
A proposal to help homeowners with disabilities get legal
representation from the Office of Public Guardian in tax foreclosure
cases passes the Illinois Senate. The bill dies in the House.

Bill to enhance homeowners’ rights in tax foreclosure cases fails
2007
A proposal to require tax buyers to send additional legal notices
about upcoming foreclosures and to give homeowners more standing to
request judges stop the transfer of their deeds fails in the Illinois
Senate.

Another bill to protect homeowners with disabilities fails
2010
Another bill seeks to exempt homeowners with disabilities from tax
sales. The bill, one of several tax sale reforms supported by the Cook
County Public Guardian and filed by State Sen. Ira Silverstein, a
Chicago Democrat, dies in the Senate without a vote on the
floor.Legislators cut interest rates on delinquent bills

Legislators cut interest rates on delinquent bills
May 24, 2023
Illinois legislators pass a law to halve interest rates charged by the
county on delinquent tax bills, from 18% to 9%. The measure —
supported by Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas — also closes
loopholes used by tax buyers to collect hundreds of millions in
refunds from the county on their investments.

Tyler v. Hennepin County
May 25, 2023
The U.S. Supreme Court rules unanimously Minnesota’s policy of
taking homes in tax foreclosure over a tax debt violates the
“takings clause” in the Bill of Rights. “The taxpayer must
render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, but no more,” writes Chief
Justice Roberts in the landmark decision. The ruling prompts states
throughout the nation to reform tax foreclosure statutes.

Pappas proposes cutting out tax buyers
October 30, 2023
Despite the Supreme Court ruling in Tyler v. Hennepin County, Illinois
does not create a practical way for homeowners to receive equity after
tax foreclosure. In meetings with lawmakers, a top official for Cook
County Treasurer Maria Pappas presents the benefits of cutting out
private investors from the tax foreclosure process. The proposal goes
nowhere.

Lawmakers consider ways to address access to equity
2025
Illinois remains the last state to comply with the 2023 Supreme Court
decision. State lawmakers make several proposals to financially help
homeowners in tax foreclosure cases, but none of the measures include
removing the third-party profiteers — tax buyers — from the
process.

“There are only two ways you can handle delinquent taxpayers,”
Blair told the Chicago Tribune in 1974 — five years before he died
— about the law he helped draft. “You can put them in jail, or you
can take their property away. Now, I ask you which is better?”

Even as news stories and columns shined a light on cases of mostly
older, widowed and homeowners with disabilities who lost homes under
the system, lawyers argued in court that the law could be unfair even
to homeowners who understood the consequences of falling behind on
their taxes.

In 1969, homeowners’ attorney Marshall Patner likened one case to
sentencing “a man to death for stealing a loaf of bread” by taking
his home over such a small debt, Kahrl says in his book.

By 1970, outrage spurred lawmakers to create a special fund to
compensate some homeowners who lost their homes to tax foreclosure.

But this “indemnity fund” was filled with obstacles, and few
homeowners took advantage. To be eligible for a payout, homeowners had
to sue the county and prove they had legitimate reasons for not paying
their taxes, such as a family emergency or other hardship.

While the 1951 law opened the door for a massive transfer of wealth to
the investors, a 1970 change of language in the state constitution
effectively guaranteed a place at the table for tax buyers. Legal
experts say removing tax buyers today from the process would require a
constitutional amendment, an expensive and time-consuming process.

In 1976, a legislative commission condemned the “unnecessary
harshness” of the law, writing, “The only function of total
forfeiture is the enrichment of tax buyers at the expense of a very
few tragic victims.”

It recommended that, rather than rely on the underutilized indemnity
fund, the state should introduce an auction process to guarantee the
return of at least some equity to all homeowners.

But lawmakers didn’t implement the proposals.

Attempts at reforms continued over the next 50 years, targeting the
foreclosure process and the high interest rates tax buyers charge
homeowners. But most fell short.

The indemnity fund remained the main source of relief for homeowners.
Decades later, the fund is insolvent. The few homeowners who are
approved for payouts have to wait years to see any money, the Illinois
Answers Project reported in 2022.

Between 2016 and 2024, the bulk of the fund’s money was signed over
in advance to investors, Cook County treasurer’s office data shows.

A landmark ruling
In 2023, a case involving an older Minnesota homeowner who lost her
home under similar circumstances to what happened to Lewis became a
landmark Supreme Court decision that guarantees homeowners their fair
share in tax foreclosure cases.

The 9-0 ruling found that Minnesota’s practice of selling homes for
unpaid tax debt and pocketing the difference violated the Fifth
Amendment’s takings clause, which bars governments from taking
private property without just compensation.

“A taxpayer who loses her $40,000 house to the state to fulfill a
$15,000 tax debt has made a far greater contribution to the public
than she owed,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the decision.
“The taxpayer must render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, but no
more.”

More than a dozen state legislatures have passed reforms since the
Minnesota ruling, though not Illinois.

“Illinois isn’t even at the constitutional bare minimum floor
right now,” says Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert, whose
office represents homeowners with disabilities who are facing tax
foreclosure.

“Illinois isn’t even at the constitutional bare minimum floor
right now,” says Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert, whose
office represents homeowners with disabilities who are facing tax
foreclosure. Ashlee Rezin / Sun-Times

The Minnesota ruling spawned lawsuits in state and federal courts
filed by former Illinois homeowners seeking to recover their lost home
equity.

In court filings, county officials have argued that they can’t repay
homeowners because tax buyers were the ones who sold their homes and
collected their equity. And the tax buyers say it’s up to the
government to make former homeowners whole.

The real culprit, legal experts say, is the state’s property tax
code, which mandates the sale of delinquent taxes to private investors
but doesn’t provide homeowners a meaningful way to access their home
equity if they lose a home to tax foreclosure.

In court filings, officials from seven collar counties argue that the
property tax code compels them “to violate the former property
owners’ constitutional rights with no mechanism to alleviate the
violations.”

To protect homeowners from foreclosure, taxing authorities in
Philadelphia, Milwaukee and the state of Maryland have taken steps to
create more robust payment plan options and to make tax sale notices
easier to understand.

In 2011, New York City exempted the most vulnerable homeowners —
including older people and people with disabilities — from tax
foreclosures.

Starting five years ago, Baltimore officials have removed all
owner-occupied homes from tax sales.

“It would be fantastic if, in the process of coming up to the bare
minimum of what the Constitution requires, Illinois will follow the
leads of other states and actually provide an even higher level of
protection for some of the most vulnerable homeowners,” says
Golbert, whose office has lobbied unsuccessfully for homeowners with
cognitive disabilities to be exempted from tax sales.

Buried in tax debt

Under the tax lien system, Cook County’s most vulnerable homeowners,
especially older people, can quickly become buried debt. Once a tax
buyer purchases a tax lien at auction, the balance grows quickly, with
fees and interest tacked on, especially if homeowners miss another tax
payment.

Diana Nesbitt missed the second of two tax installments in 2016,
totaling $1,483. Then, she was late paying her first installment of
$6,244 in 2017.

It took Nesbitt, who’s 69 and a cancer survivor raising her teenage
granddaughter, two years to pay off the debt. She says she ended her
retirement and went back to work to do that.

She remembers the relief when she made the payment just before New
Year’s 2020.

“This is the only home she knows,” Nesbitt says of her
granddaughter. “I can’t let them take it away from her, from
us.”

Nesbitt paid more than $1,532 in investor fees and $1,694 in interest,
records show.

Tax buyers appear to be particularly attracted to tax bills faced by
older homeowners, the Investigative Project and Injustice Watch found.

On average, tax buyers paid for more than 1 in every 4 liens listed
for sale in the last decade. But they gobbled up the bill of nearly
every older homeowner — roughly 96% — who wound up in the tax sale
during that period, tax sale records show.

Last year, more than 800 older homeowners had their tax debt sold at
auction — the most in a decade. Collectively, they owed $2.3 million
— about 0.01% of the county’s $17.6 billion property tax levy in
2022, the year the delinquent taxes were due.

In recent years, lawmakers have taken some steps to reduce the costs
the government can pass on to homeowners. In 2023, they cut in half
the interest rates for paying overdue property taxes.

But proposals to cut tax buyers out of the process altogether —
which, proponents argue, would result in homeowners having to pay less
in interest and fees to avoid foreclosure — have gone nowhere.

Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas, who backs the proposals, says
“it’s maddening” that lawmakers haven’t passed greater reform.
She blames tax buyers: “Their phalanx of well-paid lobbyists is
doing all it can in Springfield to block the sensible reforms that
we’re trying to make.”

Tax buyers’ most prominent lobbyist in Springfield — former
Illinois state Rep. Michael J. Zalewski, a fixture on the Southwest
Side political scene who chaired the Legislature’s Revenue and
Finance Committee for six years, until 2023 — declined an interview
request.

Buying the same house twice

It’s been almost three years since sheriff’s deputies evicted
Velma Lewis at the request of tax buyer Greg Bingham of Northlake, who
has bought thousands of tax liens worth tens of millions of dollars,
according to tax sale and corporate records.

Bingham offered to sell Lewis the home that she inherited, free and
clear, after her mother died in 2008. The price tag: $180,000. She
decided to take on debt to get the home back.

“My mother bought that place,” Lewis says. “She worked hard. She
worked two jobs.”

So, in 2023, Lewis took out a 30-year mortgage to buy back the home
where she grew up.

But the home inspection required for the sale found 88 code
violations, from electrical wiring issues to missing plumbing
fixtures.

“Neighbors in the area had broken in and stolen a lot of contents
from the building,” Bingham says.

So Lewis is also responsible for $80,000 of repairs that Maywood
village inspectors required.

Now 77, she says she’s paying the bills with help from family
members and getting by on her monthly Social Security check but is
happy she managed to keep her mother’s house.

Still, Lewis wishes she had known better from the start how the tax
sale system works. She also wants state and county officials to better
inform homeowners what can happen when they miss a payment.

There “should be a way that they can work it out, where you don’t
lose your house, you know,” Lewis says. “There’s these hound
dogs out here that are going to take it if they can.

“This man would have took mine. But it’s just that I didn’t want
to give it up.”

_Contributing: Tatiana Walk-Morris, Maia McDonald, Kristen Axtman._

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER EMELINE POSNER is a Chicago-based freelance
writer and copy editor whose reporting on city land use, the U.S.
census and maternal health has appeared in the Chicago Reader, Chicago
Magazine, South Side Weekly, Block Club Chicago and In These Times.
Posner earned  a master’s in journalism from Medill at Northwestern
University, with a concentration in investigative reporting and a
bachelor’s degree in classical studies from the University of
Chicago.

CARLOS BALLESTEROS reports on incarceration, policing, and issues
affecting immigrants and older adults in the court system. Before
joining Injustice Watch in 2020, Carlos was a Report for America corps
member at the Chicago Sun-Times and a breaking news reporter at
Newsweek in New York.

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