A group of elderly Black and Hispanic homeowners in New York City stand to receive $60 million from a federal class-action settlement after a controversial program stripped them of their home titles and wiped out their equity over unpaid property taxes.
Their 2019 lawsuit argued that the city’s Third Party Transfer (TPT) program, which empowered the city to seize homes and buildings from landlords with overdue property taxes and utility bills and unaddressed housing code violations, had unfairly and systematically focused on elderly persons of color and illegally stripped them of the accrued value of their properties and the long-term security provided by home ownership…