water bills

In this video by Huffington Post Investigative Fund, we learn the story Vicky Valentine who had her home seized by Sunrise Atlantic LLC, an arm of Bank Atlantic, because of an unpaid water bill of $362.  Ms Valentine's bill was owed to the City of Baltimore, which then sold the right to collect on the bill to a series of banks and real estate companies (third party investors) in a tax lien auction that quickly inflated the bill to over three thousand dollars. Investors then seized the home and put Ms Valentine and her family on the street. As the video details, this is a growing practice between strapped city governments and private investors (usually banks) which is dispossessing the poor and working class of their property.