Public Hearing: YES ? NO ? Department: Board of Commissioners - District 6
SUBJECT:
Title
Commission District(s): District 6
To Appropriate $20,000 from the District 6 Reserve for Appropriation to support the DeKalb County 2022 Age in Place with Dignity- Property Tax Workshops for Seniors By Seniors.
Body
Information Contact: Commissioner Edward "Ted" Terry
Phone Number: 404-371-4909
PURPOSE:
D6 funding will provide three (3) free virtual property tax workshops to educate, assist in confirming that correct qualifying exemptions have been applied initially or at renewal, and appeals to the Board of Equalizations are completed and filed correctly by the deadline. Additionally, postworkshop legal consultation will be available, if needed, to process documents to meet or negotiate outstanding taxes that must be paid in full on or before December 31st. These workshops are also designed to prepare participants to file correctly in January 2023.
NEED/IMPACT:
There is only a 45-day application or appeal timeline, which begins with the current tax assessment. Many DeKalb County Seniors, "ageing in place" as well as underserved families and heirs are targeted for higher-than-normal tax increases due to neighborhood property sales and revitalization. There is a "tsunami" of tax delinquent homes that have or will soon, flood Magistrate Court with back tax liens and foreclosures. The Court has no option to mitigate and must enforce the law. More Senior citizen and underserved families will be displaced.
Recently two metro-Atlanta women were featured in the local news:
1. An elderly woman found out that her property she resided in was on the block for tax foreclosure sale because she was not aware of, or notified, that she needed to renew her low-income senior homestead exemption that she had for over decade. A local charity drive collected enough money to save her home.
2. Homes/equity is being stole...
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