The government destroyed the new fixer-upper of handyman Eric Arnold, migrant from New Jersey to Georgia, even as he was diligently renovating it. The rationale of Macon-Bibb County: fighting blight.
Blight that Arnold was already fighting himself.
What happened to Arnold was not an isolated occurrence.
Institute for Justice reports that over the last few years, “Macon-Bibb County has demolished over 800 houses that it has designated as blighted through a fast-tracked, secret code enforcement process that completely avoids court proceedings and deprives property owners of a meaningful chance to protect their property.”
Sometimes, the county doesn’t even notify owners.
Arnold discovered what was about to happen only because a neighbor alerted him that a demolition crew was installing a dumpster on Arnold’s property. He provided officials with evidence of the improvements he was making. But it was like talking to a brick wall. The county’s only answer was to speed up the process.
“To spend all that time and money and sweat and end up with nothing but a bare piece of land, it’s devastating,” he says.
IJ attorney Dylan Moore says that Macon-Bibb “should welcome skilled home renovators like Eric with open arms. Instead, county officials made demolishing Eric’s house ‘high priority’ after Eric asked for help.…”
IJ and Arnold are suing the county to try to spare others from the loss that he has been made to suffer without any due process whatever. It’s the county’s unconstitutional system that needs demolishing.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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