City Councilman Chi Ossé’s arrest outside a Bedford-Stuyvesant brownstone to protest the perennial scourge of deed theft may have had the right sentiments, but Ossé had the wrong address. The disputed house in question is in the midst of a convoluted family struggle and there appears to be no criminal deed theft involved.
The councilman is right that criminal gangs have swindled too many unsuspecting New Yorkers out of the homes and it’s a real problem, but he wasn’t careful in this instance, as the office of Attorney General Tish James had investigated and determined that this was not an example of criminal deed theft, but a more complex disagreement involving multiple claims by different family members.
Thus city marshals along with deputy city sheriffs and NYPD cops, using a legitimate, signed order from a judge went to enforce an eviction. Ossé and others interfered with this lawful process and were arrested. There was nothing discriminatory nor racial about it.
While Ossé made his stand at the wrong house to highlight deed theft, it is a serious concern around the city, primarily affecting older homeowners of color who own properties in neighborhoods, like Bed-Stuy, that have gentrified during their ownership, raising the value of the homes.
At its core, it’s easy to see why and how this happens: you have a lopsided dynamic with experienced tricksters well-versed in property law and its loopholes facing off against regular people who might not be equipped to understand what they’re agreeing to or signing off on. Sometimes, the method is outright forgery or deceit; other times, it is fraud in the sense that property owners are not fully informed about what the other party is actually offering.
While there are numerous groups raising awareness and providing information to homeowners about how they might be targeted, we cannot expect often elderly homeowners to have to fend for themselves against the organized efforts of scammers with deep pockets, threatening tactics and lawyers on retainer.
It’s often the case that victims of deed theft do not even realize that their property has been slipped out from under them until a transfer has already happened, or even when they receive eviction notices ordering them to vacate their own homes, forcing them to fight the theft while also fighting their removal.
We commend the AG’s office for its work to investigate such allegations of deed theft, which have exploded in recent years. Perhaps local district attorneys’ offices can focus some of their own resources on a problem that likely remains under-reported, and in the long term lawmakers might explore reforms to deed transfer processes and asset-backed lending, which is often an entry point for a crime that is likely to only get worse as home prices continue to rise.
For the scammers, deed theft is just a way to make a quick buck. But for the people in the families they target, the result is the destruction of economic legacies. In many cases, the properties themselves are the most valuable asset that the families own, often left to them by parents or grandparents that spent lifetimes working to afford the properties as a patrimony to their descendants. Having these properties taken away without recourse is effectively unraveling generations of effort. That’s immoral and a black eye for a city that’s built its reputation on opportunity for all; we cannot allow it to continue.