"The Jordan Garden House" Had its Slummy Contract Canceled

1716 26th Avenue North is often referred to as "The Jordan Garden House" due to its proximity to the "peace garden" at the corner of 26th and Knox Avenue North.  (Although the Jordan Area Community Council does not own the house.)  The house has been a vacant eyesore for years, since it went from one owner to tax forfeiture.  And since Hennepin County has had low or nonexistent standards for who they'll sell tax-forfeited properties to, this one was purchased by the infamous Ken Welch of Assertive Properties.

The story that sticks with me about Welch with this house is that reportedly a local non-profit developer was interested in making an offer to buy and rehab the house.  The developer figured Welch would be open to a deal, as the house simply couldn't be financially viable in its boarded and vacant state.  The annual VBR fees alone had to make the property untenable.  Instead, the offer was rebuffed on the grounds that the place was still financially worth keeping even in that condition.  Why would that be, I wonder?  I have my own theories, but welcome any ideas folks may have.

For the purpose of this post, however, the important development is that Welch/Assertive no longer owns the house.  And here's how that happened:

Photo Tour of Tax Forfeitures, Continued

 

The first round of tax forfeiture photos were just the properties in Jordan, but I set out to chronicle all of the houses that the County will have in their possession if they aren't redeemed.  Neighborhood groups are typically asked to make one of three recommendations on such properties; either that we support the city's acquisition, that we recommend allowing the houses to go to an auction, or that we recommend the properties be withheld from auction for six months while an alternate use is determined.

Where that limited set of recommendations falls short is that we may not support what the city does with a property post-acquisition (not to mention that neither we nor the city may even know such things at this moment).  We certainly don't have reason to trust that the County will avoid selling to slumlords at auction.  And there's no way to know whether we'll find a good investor in six months or if that investor will even find the County to be a willing seller.

So in general, those three choices almost ought to be scrapped for a different system entirely--at least for distressed communities where the tax auction process invites a worse breed of buyers than other parts of Hennepin County.  What that process might look like is a topic for another post.  For now, we march on with the photo tour.  The above property is 3301 Oliver Avenue North, and then we have...

Fall Round of Hennepin County Tax Forfeitures

It's that time of year again, where seasons may change but the risk of tax-forfeited properties being sold to slumlords does not.  A nineteen-page list of Minneapolis tax forfeitures was recently sent to neighborhood groups from the city of Minneapolis.  Credit where credit is due:  I've been critical of the city's policies surrounding vacant houses, but they've been a good partner on tax forfeitures.  Specifically, we used to get lists with only a few days to respond with neighborhood organizational positions on what to do with these houses and vacant lots.  The city really went to bat for our communities with the argument that this simply wasn't enough turnaround time.  Now we have until November 26th to submit comments.

The Jordan neighborhood has roughly two dozen such tax forfeitures, although for the purpose of this and subsequent blog posts, I will focus only on houses and not vacant land.  As I took a look at each Jordan property, like 2122 Ilion Ave N pictured above, I came to two conclusions.  There wasn't a single one I'd tear down (except the one that was already demolished by the time I got there), and there wasn't a single one I'd consider an acceptable slumlord acquisition.  So it's time to put our city and county government on notice:  We are watching how this process plays out, and it better result in a better north Minneapolis.

Jordan has a baker's dozen tax-forfeited properties with structures on them.  Twelve, technically, but the thirteenth was an arson-damaged home that was torn down after the list was generated.  Aside from the Ilion house, we have...

New Tax-Forfeiture Regulatory Plumage!

Post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman.

There are a few vacant properties in Hawthorne and Jordan that I watch over, well, like a hawk.  So much so that even when driving by, I can tell out of the corner of my eye that there is a new notice posted on the door.  Most of the time, I can tell the difference between a water shut-off notice, a tax-forfeiture notice, condemnation, work permits, and other such "regulatory plumage" even at a distance.  I've impressed friends and colleagues by knowing the difference not only by the color of the notification, but even the tape used to affix, or the format and typesetting that is visible at a distance.

It's not often that an entirely new sort of notice shows up, and when it does I am immediately fascinated.  That's exactly what happened today at the infamous "Mr. Slummy" property at 2515 3rd Street North.  That's when I saw...

New Rules for Tax-Forfeited Properties

 

Post and stock photo by the Hawthorne Hawkman.

In many ways, this is public discourse and public service at its finest.

Several weeks ago, I and other northside housing activists noticed that quite a few tax-forfeited properties were winding up in the hands of slumlords.  The more we looked at the issue, the more we realized that the system was essentially set up to enable those property owners and shut out good ones.  It only took one blog post (and some discussion on North Talk) before County Commissioner Linda Higgins and Minneapolis Council President Barb Johnson responded and set up a meeting.  I used a second post to lay out some potential solutions prior to that discussion.

Higgins and Johnson came prepared, however.  At that meeting they and city and county employees laid out a series of proposals for how to limit such problematic acquisitions.  I believe we all left that meeting energized about changing our community for the better.  At least as a citizen, I am tremendously excited when there is swift constituent response, especially when that response comes with solid proposals that our elected officials come up with.

Much of those are already being put into action, as Commissioner Higgins' most recent newsletter indicates.  In case the link goes dead after a while, the pertinent items are:

A New Approach to Tax Forfeitures

Post and stock photo (of a tax-forfeited property) by the Hawthorne Hawkman.

The previous post outlined the problem of tax-forfeited properties in north Minneapolis being scooped up by slumlords.  A good discussion happened on the North Talk Facebook page that helped shape a few ideas for a solution.  What follows is based on my current understanding of the issue, and may change as things develop.

But as it stands now, the first concern is that the resale of tax forfeitures is heavily skewed towards the expansion of problem properties in our community.  The houses are sold as-is, they are not listed on the MLS (because apparently the County cannot or will not contract with a Realtor to list them), open houses are held, but attended almost exclusively by landlords, flippers, and fools.  Out of those prospective buyers, bids are placed at the auction, and the financing mechanism of 10% down and ten yearly payments makes it too easy for bad actors to add to their inventory.

The City of Minneapolis and approved development partners do often pick up some homes, but the majority are left to the auction process.  Changing that process seems daunting at first, because...

Tax Forfeitures are a Slumlord Pipeline

Post and photo by the Hawthorne Hawkman.

On my occasional forays downtown, I like to stop by the Hennepin County Government Center to look into property histories.  Today's curiosity involved properties repossessed by Hennepin County through tax forfeiture.  One in particular piqued my interest, as it is in my community.  The condemned house was purchased for the amazingly low sum of $11,000 in December of last year.

But that's not the whole story, nor even the most infuriating part.  No, what truly amazed me was that the buyer didn't REALLY pay $11,000.  Instead, he put down just...