Residents Organize to Fight for Lot, Uncover Questionable

By Kayla Benjamin WI Climate & Environment Reporter

In the Southeast neighborhood of Talbert Terrace, a tree-ringed lot that has hosted four generations of childhood baseball games and joy-filled block parties could soon disappear. Despite over a decade of attempts to clear up paperwork confusion and reclaim ownership of the land by the tax-exempt neighborhood association, the community owed more than $600,000 in back taxes by 2016. That year, the District sold it in a dis-

Acquisition

count tax sale for $29,000.

“It seems like they’re robbing us,” Karen Hilliard, longtime Talbert Terrace resident and current vice president of the Anacostia Homeowners and Residents Association, told the Informer in an early May article about the lot.

In July 2019, the purchaser, Rupsha 2011 LLC, officially acquired the deed for the land from the city. To many of the neighbors, it seemed like their chances to keep the spot had shrunk to nothing.