Community Corner
A Lot Of Wrong, Right Here In Cuyahoga County and Cleveland Heights
You think all the bad guys have been weeded out of county government and real estate? Think again.
Cleveland's Lily Miller made these stories happen. It's 100 times worse than they published.
This touches the Land Bank, and CH city council person Cheryl Stephens is a director with the land bank. The CH charter says she can't do both jobs. The CH law director didn't agree with me on that.
Another player in this "industry" is Safeguard. A big shot with Safeguard donated $5,000 to CH councilperson Stein's 2013 re-election campaign. You may recall Stephens and Stein cooperated on yard signs.
From a special series in today's Washington Post:
"In Cleveland, Lily Miller grew so frustrated with tax lien investors that she started blogging in 2008, criticizing government officials for allowing investors to “destroy lives and neighborhoods.”"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2013/12/08/local-laws-do-little-to-protect-homeowners...
"The newspaper also spent three months investigating one of the top tax-lien purchasers in the District, Aeon Financial, as it moved into Maryland and Ohio. The newspaper studied hundreds of court cases, deeds, mortgages, and corporate and land records, and it presented its Ohio data to Michael Schramm of the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2013/12/08/debt-collecting-machine/?hpid=z4
"Tax lien purchaser Aeon Financial has spent millions buying liens in the District, Maryland, Ohio and other jurisdictions with little government scrutiny. The company, which lists no owners, no local office and no Web site, has threatened to foreclose on hundreds of properties."http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/mystery-company-threatens-homes-from-dc-to-ohio/2013/12...