“The Black Tax” Puts NYC Property Tax Lien Sales in Historical Context

By Mary Alice Miller
With New York City’s impending tax lien sale scheduled for May 20, Assemblywoman Latrice Walker hosted Professor and Historian Andrew W. Kahrl at Mt. Ararat Church to put New York City’s tax lien system in historical context. Professor Kahrl is the author of “The Black tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America”.

Attorney Yolande Nicholson moderated the event and began by declaring, “It is imperative that they get off the tax lien sale list,” referring to owners whose properties are on the list. “The tax lien list includes charges that remain against a property for at least 12 months. Properties are put on the list by the NYC Dept. of Finance, the Dept. of Environmental Protection, and the NYC Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development.”

Nicholson noted, “This year, a significant number of properties are on the list just for water bills. Over the course of time before they become a lien, those charges bear interest, from as low as 3-9% up to 18%. Once they become a lien, they are eligible to be sold by the city, and once sold, they will start earning interest at 18% compounded daily. Once they are sold, additional costs and fees are added, including legal fees, collection costs, and penalties.”
Nicholson spoke of one of her clients, “who started out with a $5,000 lien and by the time it entered the trust, it was close to $15,000 in less than two years.”

“New York City’s tax lien system is designed less for equitable enforcement and more for financial extraction, disproportionately harming homeowners in historically Black and Brown neighborhoods, destabilizing communities, and accelerating displacement. A significant percentage were properties in Bed Stuy/Crown Heights and East Flatbush/Flatbush,” said Nicholson.

In NYC, tax liens are claims the City places on properties when owners fail to pay charges like property taxes, water bills, or emergency repair costs. These liens are sold to private investors, transferring collection rights, often leading to foreclosure.
NYC’s last lien sale was in 2021, during the pandemic. The sale included 2,841 properties citywide, 1148 of which were in Brooklyn.
Many of the properties in 2025 are single-family homes, 1-4 family homes, and small buildings, many of which are owned by families.

In 2025, approximately 18,000 properties on the 90-day list are queued up to go into liens. Over 65% of those properties are in Bed Stuy, Brownsville, East New York, Flatbush, East Flatbush, and Canarsie.
There are 3,479 properties listed on the 2025 30-day Notice in Water Debt Only. Of those, 2562 are located in historically Black neighborhoods and are to be sold on May 20, 2025. This accounts for 73.64% of all water debt only liens.
“The intensity and propensity for tax liens in historically Black communities correlates to ten years ago, which showed a propensity and intensity of subprime loans that were going into foreclosure,” said Nicholson.

Professor Kahrl said he commenced writing his study to understand the past and the present and ultimately change the future.
“My work examines the history of racial discrimination and inequity in local tax systems,” said Kahrl. “The Black Tax looks at how these local patterns and practices undermine and stall [Black people’s acquisition and retention of] land, property, and wealth.”
Some of Professor Kahrl’s findings are familiar to Black New Yorkers, particularly the higher tax rates that Black homeowners are assessed compared to White homeowners.

“This was the case in the rural South at the turn of the 20th century, it was the case in post-War Northern cities African Americans migrated to, and it remains the case today,” Kahrl said. “For all the taxes that African Americans pay, they have been systemically and grossly underserved when it comes to the public goods and services that their tax dollars support. We are discussing public education, local infrastructure, water and sewer services, sidewalks, parks and playgrounds, and fire and public safety.”

Kahrl continued, “Black Americans, especially the elderly and the poor, have been disproportionately victimized by tax-delinquency laws that allow private investors to purchase tax debts for profit, charge them exorbitant interest and fees, and take people’s homes and land if they don’t pay. This has resulted in massive amounts of land, homes, and wealth that have been taken from African Americans over the past 150 years. We are talking about no less than $600 billion by the most conservative estimates.”

He asked, “How does this happen, and how does it continue to happen?”
“In the aftermath of Reconstruction, African Americans have been stripped of their rights and denied equal protection under the law. Black landownership acquired critical importance. Land ownership became a shelter in the storm. It became the means of gaining a measure of freedom.

During the late 19th century, African American land ownership increased rather rapidly and dramatically. By 1910, African Americans owned 16 million acres of land in the U.S. Owning property became synonymous with citizenship and gaining the ability to make claims on the state because they were paying taxes on that land,” said Kahrl.

He added, “But at the same time, owning land made Black people more vulnerable to other forms of discrimination, such as those being carried out in the form of local taxes.”
“Professor Kahrl’s book will make you angry,” said Assemblywoman Latrice Walker. “It will force you to think about how the tax system was used to steal billions of dollars in property from Black people in America. For more than 150 years, there has been a systemic campaign to rob people of the chance to attain generational wealth.”

Walker continued, “The stories in the book are compelling and infuriating, but they are also timely. New York City’s controversial tax lien sale is scheduled for May 20. This is a program that disproportionately targets Black and brown residents, including here in Brooklyn. It can lead to increased debt, foreclosure, and the loss of property over unpaid water bills or property taxes. This well-researched book is a must-read.”