Deed theft in Black and Latino communities across the five boroughs is becoming a central housing issue in local elections. In the 56th Assembly District race, incumbent Stefani Zinerman faces challengers amid an ongoing ownership dispute at 212 Jefferson Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant involving district leader candidate Carmella Charrington. Protests over the case led to arrests of members of the Stop Deed Theft Coalition, followed by an emergency rally. After the incident went viral, the mayor launched a Mayor’s Office of Deed Theft Prevention and appointed an attorney to lead it. Zinerman links deed theft to tax lien sales, property taxes, foreclosure and auction, guardianship and heirs rights disputes, and harassment of homeowners—especially elderly residents—into selling. Prior legislation efforts have faced intense opposition and sometimes deepened tenant-landlord conflict.
"In addition to traditional deed theft, said Zinerman, issues with the city's tax lien sale system and property taxes have led to homes being foreclosed on and auctioned; guardianship or heirs rights cases when a family member died without a will or trust for the house; and most notably, homeowners, especially the elderly, being petitioned or harassed into selling their homes. Zinerman has likened it to a "syndicate-level" plan to erase Black and Brown homeowners."
Read at New York Amsterdam News
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