Kudos to Legal Action Chicago, Southwest Organizing Project and Logan Square Neighborhood Association for filing a major federal civil rights lawsuit to reform Cook County’s wholly unfair delinquent property sales tax process. As correctly set forth in the lawsuit, the current system discriminates against Black and Latino residents, often resulting in loss of a family’s home over a minuscule amount of unpaid property taxes.
The current system also discriminates against homeowners with Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive disabilities who are not able to understand or take appropriate action in response to property tax bills or notices that their home will be sold over unpaid taxes. Most often the homeowner is of advanced age.
