Taxed Into a Tent, Part 1 | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publishers's note: Second part of this series can be found here.

    A central part of the American Dream is owning your own home. We have plenty of trees so cheap wood can make affordable houses available. From small shack to mansion, it is possible to have something to live in which is called MY HOUSE. It can be passed to your children / sold to one / with great pride you can say, "My parents made this house possible through hard work and taking care of it. My brother bought us out so we can now get a house as well."

    There is another segment of society which finds home ownership almost impossible. The really poor cannot come up with a down payment, closing costs, nor get a loan because of bad credit. With the growth of Atlanta many black families bought into a scheme by some unscrupulous realtors called "Block Busting."

    What that meant was 2-3 families were advised to go together. The Realtor often loaned the money himself for maximum profit. Soon you had 2-3 black families in a formerly all-white neighborhood. With them came loud music, hanging out on the street, gangs chasing and fighting, kids peeking into the old white couple's window, cars in old neighborhoods had few garages so they were parked on the street---kids now played on them and slid off the roof to the bumper. The cars were old, but they got that old couple to the store and back.

    The residents of the neighborhood did not like the new social activities. Where once there was peace and quiet, now there were loud children and teens in the streets to all hours of the night. They could not sleep and enjoy the old ways of having arrived at home ownership. Their house was small, but it was paid for and they had just enough retirement income to keep it up. Now they were living in a social change HELL!

    I speak from the knowledge of my favorite Aunt and Uncle who lived in the Kirkwood area of Atlanta. It was within eyesight of downtown. There were nice trees and small yards easy enough to keep by old folks. It was a corner of post-WWII comfort for them. Uncle Luther had turned the little garage into a shop and he loved to produce stools and nightstands he carefully painted to give to us. In return, I made a model of the famous aircraft carrier Enterprise they put on their mantle with pride. They had a TV before us so we often visited, and now, a young boy could see the local kiddie show with Officer Don and friends along with cartoons and Captain Video space adventures!

    What was happening was "Theft with a Pen." The realtors got filthy rich off such activities. They charged high interest to the families who could not get a conventional loan. Soon the white old couples got antsy and began to sell their homes. The first few sold were at a modest price. After a few months and another 3-4 rowdy families moving in, people got really scared. To the "great money-making realtor" they now sold their houses for half the tax value. He turned around and sold/financed those homes to other people of color for twice the appraised value! He could borrow money with his good credit and then double his interest to people he was "helping." Between usury rates on the loan PLUS buying low and selling high, a large number of realtors got filthy rich off the backs of others less fortunate. It was legal, but far from MORAL!

    This is why many elderly white folks moved to Cobb County, famous for its racial hate. They got a large influx in the 1950-60's years of Atlanta growth. The houses cost much. The taxes were twice those of Fulton County, and old folks literally had to start over again when they had been in a comfortable retirement. Mass transit fails with their every vote-to keep the bad out.

    The Cobb County Commissioners glowed over such wonderful growth of their formerly poor County! It is a story often repeated in any fast grow urban area like Baltimore, New York, D.C., St. Lewis, Detroit---to name a few. Donald Trump's realtor father got his wealth with such tactics---and now "The Donald" continues to get rich off the backs of those less fortunate with large tenement slum lord properties.

    History is repeating itself in this continued Recession since December 2007.

    I am now one of those people who thought he was secure with a nice home of great value on 4 acres in the woods of Nash County. It had a pristine pond fed by an artesian stream which flowed by our dream home. I could hunt deer off my back porch. Catch nice bass. I had room for my grandchildren to romp and play. I had a little paddle boat and put a long rope to the limb of my oak tree! We were living the American dream of home ownership, security, equity that could be applied to a smaller home for retirement. We could sit on the swing of the 2-story back porch, built so the pond was exactly centered. As we swung when the children were not there we were so delighted that hard work had gained us "security of old age." The cicadas made the same noises in the evening as I had on my granddaddy's porch in SC. It was therapeutic, to say the least! Long hours and hard work had their perfect therapy.

    We had come back home to Rocky Mount where my wife's family lived. It was perfect timing as a granddaughter could help her grandmother and aunt with their elder care. Her father had fought a hard battle with cancer and now was experiencing blood issues brought on by his 20 years ago radiation that saved him. For us and the entire family---LIFE WAS GOOD. He could watch his 2 grandchildren and love them each week. We had been away all our married life, but now we were a family once more---together in Rocky Mount.

    You won't believe what I have to share in Part II of this . . .