密歇根新闻广播 韦恩县的人可以不用因为纳税抵押而失去房子

 

Thousands of Detroit and Wayne County homeowners face tax foreclosures. Some of those families still have time to save their homes, but they might be paying more in taxes than they should have had to pay.

Cheryl West has been living in her home for 60 years. Her family bought it when she was eight years old. It's near the historic Boston-Edison neighborhood in Detroit. But she lost it to tax foreclosure before she learned all her options.

"The house had already gone for eviction², that I was to be evicted³ from the home. By that point it had gone for auction," she explained.

She now rents the house, but she suspects the landlord will evict¹ her and move into it.

All indications are that West never should have lost the house. She lives on her Social Security check. People with incomes near poverty can get a poverty exemption⁴ on their taxes.

"I found out at the very end zone that, in fact, I should have been eligible⁵ for the exemption for property taxes and no one told me that," she said.

And advocates say a lot of people lose their homes because they don't know they can challenge their property tax assessment⁶.

David Mitchell is a member of the group Detroit Eviction Defense⁷. He says as property values have plummeted⁸, tax bills should have gone down too.

"It's the county that has never reassessed these properties, that is charging people for thousands of dollars over what their actual taxes should be and saying, 'Oh, we messed up? That's too bad. You've still got to pay or you've got to leave your house'" Mitchell said. Detroit Eviction Defense has been calling for a moratorium⁹ on tax foreclosures.

Wayne County Treasurer¹⁰ Raymond Wojtowicz says he can't do that.

"It isn't within our authority. It's a higher public service organization, legislative¹¹ specifically, that can only attain¹² that goal for those people," Wojtowicz said.

"They need to go talk to the state legislature? Fine. They need to go talk to the governor? Fine," Mitchell responds, "but, at the end of the day they're not doing enough to get what we need, which is a moratorium and a halt to these foreclosures until they can figure out what's going on."

The county treasurer's office says there are many programs in place to help people, but it cannot retroactively adjust assessments¹³ and it cannot retroactively grant people a poverty exemption. That's something homeowners have to do before foreclosure.

Frank Alexander is a law professor at Emory University. He helped draft Michigan laws that help homeowners struggling with mortgage and tax foreclosures. He says more needs to be done to prevent foreclosures and keep people in their homes.

"Michigan doesn't have adequate circuit breakers to create exemptions¹⁴ for owner-occupied property, particularly the low income, low-to-moderate income owner-occupied property. They should not be paying significant property taxes," Alexander said.

Changes to state law have helped some people avoid foreclosure, for now. New low-interest payment plans have cut Wayne County's foreclosure list from 22,000 owner occupied homes to 4200. More people still can make those kinds of arrangements if they get into the treasurer's office before June 8th.

But, there will still be a lot of families who'll lose their homes, and this is not a one-time event.

Jerry Paffendorf is with Loveland. It gathers data on property. "Unless something systematically¹⁵ different happens, this is will not be the last year of tax foreclosure at this scale. I think it's important for people to understand this is not a solved problem because we're flushing out the system, so to speak," Paffendorf said.

The Wayne County Treasurer's office confirms next year could be just as bad.

Support for the Detroit Journalism¹⁶ Cooperative on Michigan Radio comes from the John S. and James L. Knight¹⁷ Foundation, Renaissance¹⁸ Journalism's Michigan Reporting Initiative, and the Ford¹⁹ Foundation.

1 evict   

vt.驱逐，赶出，撵走

参考例句：

• The lessor can evict the lessee for failure to pay rent.出租人可驱逐不付租金的承租人。
• The government always says it's for the greater good when they evict farmers from their land.当政府把农民从他们的土地赶出去的时候，总是号称是为了更大众的利益。

2 eviction   

n.租地等的收回

参考例句：

• The family have won a temporary reprieve from eviction.这个家庭暂时免于被逐出。
• He claimed damages for unlawful eviction.他要求对非法驱逐作出赔偿。

3 evicted   

v.（依法从房屋里或土地上）驱逐，赶出( evict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• A number of tenants have been evicted for not paying the rent. 许多房客因不付房租被赶了出来。
• They had evicted their tenants for non-payment of rent. 他们赶走了未交房租的房客。

4 exemption   

n.豁免，免税额，免除

参考例句：

• You may be able to apply for exemption from local taxes.你可能符合资格申请免除地方税。
• These goods are subject to exemption from tax.这些货物可以免税。

5 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

6 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

7 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

8 plummeted   

v.垂直落下，骤然跌落( plummet的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Share prices plummeted to an all-time low. 股票价格暴跌到历史最低点。
• A plane plummeted to earth. 一架飞机一头栽向地面。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 moratorium   

n.(行动、活动的)暂停(期)，延期偿付

参考例句：

• The government has called for a moratorium on weapons testing.政府已要求暂停武器试验。
• We recommended a moratorium on two particular kinds of experiments.我们建议暂禁两种特殊的实验。

10 treasurer   

n.司库，财务主管

参考例句：

• Mr. Smith was succeeded by Mrs.Jones as treasurer.琼斯夫人继史密斯先生任会计。
• The treasurer was arrested for trying to manipulate the company's financial records.财务主管由于试图窜改公司财政帐目而被拘留。

11 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

12 attain   

vt.达到，获得，完成

参考例句：

• I used the scientific method to attain this end. 我用科学的方法来达到这一目的。
• His painstaking to attain his goal in life is praiseworthy. 他为实现人生目标所下的苦功是值得称赞的。

13 assessments   

n.评估( assessment的名词复数 )；评价；（应偿付金额的）估定；（为征税对财产所作的）估价

参考例句：

• He was shrewd in his personal assessments. 他总能对人作出精明的评价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Surveys show about two-thirds use such assessments, while half employ personality tests. 调查表明，约有三分之二的公司采用了这种测评；而一半的公司则采用工作人员个人品质测试。 来自百科语句

14 exemptions   

n.（义务等的）免除( exemption的名词复数 )；免（税）；（收入中的）免税额

参考例句：

• The exemptions for interpretive rules, policy statements, and procedural rules have just been discussed. 有关解释性规则、政策说明和程序规则的免责我们刚刚讨论过。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
• A: The regulation outlines specific exemptions for some WPM. 答：该规定概述了某些木质包装材料的特定的例外情形。 来自互联网

15 systematically   

adv.有系统地

参考例句：

• This government has systematically run down public services since it took office.这一屆政府自上台以来系统地削减了公共服务。
• The rainforest is being systematically destroyed.雨林正被系统地毀灭。

16 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

17 knight   

n.骑士，武士；爵士

参考例句：

• He was made an honourary knight.他被授予荣誉爵士称号。
• A knight rode on his richly caparisoned steed.一个骑士骑在装饰华丽的马上。

18 renaissance   

n.复活，复兴，文艺复兴

参考例句：

• The Renaissance was an epoch of unparalleled cultural achievement.文艺复兴是一个文化上取得空前成就的时代。
• The theme of the conference is renaissance Europe.大会的主题是文艺复兴时期的欧洲。

19 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。