Amid Protests, City Marshal Grants 10-Day Stay on Eviction of Windom Bey Family

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Submitted by Ryan Acuff on Fri, 2012-06-08 23:48

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Photo by Annette Dragon

On Thursday June 7, 2012 about 50 neighbors and community members joined the Windom Bey Family on their front lawn for an Eviction Protest at 33 Bartlett St., Rochester. Eddie L. Windom Bey and Mary Windom Bey were slated for a forceful eviction from their home of 40 years at 33 Bartlett St. by the City Marshal and Rochester Police as early on Thursday. However, just before the protest called by Take Back the Land Rochester began, Mr. Windom Bey annnouced that the City Marshal had granted a 10 day stay of the eviction at request the Mayor's office.

This is all the more significant because the City of Rochester is responsible for this unjust eviction and decades-long mistreatment of the Windom Bey family and the family is asking the City to work with them to stop and eviction and get their house back. When Rocwill, a Wilmorate subsidiary, fell $22 million behind on their taxes not only did the City not sell the lien or foreclose but it has been putting all of their efforts into cutting deals so they can avoid foreclosure. There is no reason that the City couldn't put a fraction of the attention into avoiding tax foreclosure for regular families like the Windom Bey family throughout the City.

In early 1970s Eddie and Mary moved into 33 Bartlett St. After they rented for years, they purchased the house from the landlord, however the landlord never turned over the deed because he still had liens on the property. The City took the house from the landlord and in 1985 the family entered into a 7-year land contract with the City of Rochester. Even though the land contract was paid off by 1991, the family was not given the deed to the house until 1995.

In 1994, before the City of Rochester formally deeded the property over to the Windom Bey family, the City, without explanation, landlocked the property by terminating the 1923 Driveway Agreement and the 1926 Driveway Privilege agreement which guaranteed 33 Bartlett access to the driveway in perpetuity. After the City terminated this right of way, a neighbor was allowed to put up a chain link fence blocking access to and from the driveway at the back of the house. This not only left the family without access to their driveway, but lost use of their car, truck, van cooking trailer and two boats which were all in the back driveway at the time the fence was installed. Even after persistent protest the City refused to take the fence down. The family tried to obtain legal counsel, but after being dragged along for years the lawyers refused to act resulting in a reprimand of the family’s lawyer from 7th Judicial District Grievance Committee.

After the family had sued the City over the fence, the City of Rochester issued tens of thousands of dollars in petty code violations to the Windom Bey family including violations for the cars and boats located in the backyard, which the family could neither use nor remove due to the City’s own act of terminating the right of way, allowing the driveway to be fenced in. Given the exorbitant cost of the code violations, which were more than the value of property, they fell behind on their taxes. Still they paid their taxes until 2011 except for the year of 2007 where they could not afford to pay for the violations. The City then sold the tax lien to a company in Florida, American Tax Funding (ATF), who aggressively foreclosed on the house. In October 2011, the house was auctioned off to an ATF subsidiary, also in Florida, REOCO, LLC, for $7,000. On March 2012, REOCO, LLC sold the house to the Sure Luck Homes 017, LLC $4,000 (see also, Who is Sure Luck Homes 017?).

Now that the City has washed their hands of the property and the ordeal they created the family is facing displacement from the current owner. The Windom Bey family is calling on the City of Rochester not to the enforce the eviction, assist them in getting the house back in their name, restore the right of way to the driveway, and remove the violations.