One Community Update
September 9, 2024

Source: Magnolia Tribune

Within the state of Mississippi, one city has roughly 25 percent of the state’s total abandoned properties. That municipality is the city of Jackson.

The Capital City’s larger than average percentage of abandoned properties brings with it a number of problems for local officials.

“It would begin with public safety itself, and that’s really one of the key reasons that people choose to abandon their properties and leave is because they don’t feel safe,” said Ward 1 City Councilman Ashby Foote.

A property can become abandoned for a variety of reasons. A homeowner could die or be unable to sell the property after moving away. A bank might foreclose on the owner, or a tenant might vacate the property without another renter ready to move in. If taxes on those properties are not paid for long enough period of time, the properties eventually fall into state ownership until it can be sold.

By the Numbers

According to Tyronne Hickman, Bureau Director of the Public Lands Division of the Secretary of State’s office, as of August 2024, his office listed about 1,800 state-owned abandoned properties within the City of Jackson. Comparatively, statewide there are about 7,000 properties that are state-owned, according to the Secretary of State’s rolls. That equates to close to 25 percent of all abandoned properties under state ownership in Jackson alone.

William (Bill) Chaney, Assistant Secretary of State Public Lands Division, added that the number of properties changes regularly.

“As we actively sell property, it changes,” Chaney described. “I wouldn’t say hourly, but it certainly changes daily.”

However, Councilman Foote notes that those figures do not reflect the true number of abandoned properties in the City of Jackson, or the state, since it can take between two to eight years before they become part of the State’s rolls.

New properties are added twice a year. Counties in the Delta hold tax sales in April. Other counties hold sales in August, according to Chaney. He estimates that for every property on the Secretary of State’s rolls, there are three or four more abandoned properties that have not gone through the tax sale process.

Only a fraction of those properties is commercial, Hickman said, as about 95 percent of abandoned properties are within areas zoned residential.

How Property Falls Under State Ownership

Properties that become temporarily state-owned are recorded by the Secretary of State’s office. The process starts with the owner not paying their property taxes for two years. After legally required attempts to notify the owner have failed, the property goes up for tax sale.

During the tax sale a private party can pay the back taxes and begin the process of assuming ownership of the property. If no private party pays the back taxes, the property falls to state ownership.

“It sits basically in limbo for (the property owner) to come in and pay one or two years of back taxes to get it back,” Chaney described. “So, we’ll get it that third tax sale year.”

Under extreme circumstances, that time frame can be even longer.

“There are those special cases where tax investor ‘A’ might buy it one year, then tax investor ‘B’ might buy it another year, tax investor ‘C’ and then ‘D’, and that could push it out about six to seven years before we get it,” Hickman explained.

The properties are often in a state of serious disrepair by the time they become state-owned. That fact can make some people assume the Secretary of State’s office is to blame.

“It’s not like we ran it down, we got it in a bad shape,” Chaney added. “Usually, people see a piece of bad property, and they just assume it’s ours. Probably 90 percent of the time it’s not.”

Councilman Foote notes that it would be unreasonable for the Secretary of State’s office to be able to maintain such a large number of properties.