Here is the opinion of Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal on the controversial issue of Sheriff’s Sales. This is a topic of increasing importance in Philadelphia. The follow words are Sheriff Bilal’s and we encourage you to read them, research the issue, and form your own opinion. When you have one we’d love to hear your thoughts on this and other issues l!

“If you’re a human being with at least one compassionate bone in your body, then you don’t like sheriff sales. These events held to recoup unpaid mortgages for banks and unpaid taxes for the City of Philadelphia, signify nothing so much as the loss of a family’s home – the latest and most terrible tragedy in a long string of misfortunes ending in the bang of a gavel.

As Sheriff of the City and County of Philadelphia, I am sworn to serve the citizens of this great city. I am also sworn to execute the orders of the court, which include when to hold Sheriff Sales. Before the pandemic, this meant holding multiple sales a month. When it became clear that there would be no way to safely hold in-person sales – which could attract close to 600 people – I petitioned the court to postpone sales until the day came that we could ensure the safety of all participants. In December 2020, I received orders from the First Judicial Court of Philadelphia to resume Sheriff Sales by April 2021. Knowing that it was just a matter of time before such an order was given, my team had done the legwork necessary to ensure that we would be ready to move forward with virtual online sales.

These sales have been an unqualified success, allowing for unprecedented protection for homeowners, attorneys, and bidders. In addition, the sales have generated better-than-expected participation and sales, which has allowed us to return even more money to those who have lost their homes while cutting the expenses associated with conducting in-person sales. Those expenses are more than $200,000 a year. That’s $1 million over 5 years, costs that would have been charged to the individuals losing their property. Virtual sales cost the individuals losing their property nothing. Zero.

Despite the resumption of sales being announced last year, and despite months of outreach about the transition to virtual sales, there was intense pushback against the resumption of sales in some quarters, including repeated calls from elected officials and homeowner advocacy groups to postpone the sales. While there is no argument that resuming Sheriff Sales during the pandemic creates the opportunity for even more hardship for those caught in the foreclosure process, the law is clear: Without a viable, valid legal reason, I cannot petition the court for a postponement. To do so would open the floodgates to lawsuits – which, if successful, would have to be paid by Philadelphia taxpayers – by attorneys and plaintiffs who have the right to expect the court and my office to perform our duties regarding such sales.

But as I made clear during my successful 2019 campaign to change the way the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office conducts its business, I am not someone who is content to accept the status quo. A few days ago, in the latest round of meetings my team has held with a coalition of homeowner advocacy groups that includes Community Legal Services, the Philadelphia Unemployment Project, and Philadelphia Legal Assistance, I came to the determination that the latest federal relief package contains legal reason sufficient for me to petition the court to temporarily postpone Philadelphia Sheriff Sales.

In light of the potential funding coming to the City of Philadelphia – which should receive a significant portion of the estimated $350 million to be disbursed to the commonwealth via the American Rescue Plan’s Homeowner Assistance Fund, help could indeed be on the way for so many Philadelphians who need to stay in their homes, Accordingly, I formally petitioned the court for a 60-day postponement of sales so that all parties can better determine the impact of this funding. The court responded quickly: On April 29, the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania ordered that all sheriff sales be postponed for 120 days – until September.

While this petition is a significant step in the arduous journey to help at-risk Philadelphians keep their homes, the road ahead for too many homeowners is long and dangerous unless real, meaningful legislation is enacted as soon as possible. Without bold, transformative action by my fellow elected officials in City Council, the General Assembly, and Congress, when literally countless evictions that have been put off indefinitely by executive orders at the state and federal levels are no longer postponed, this city, this state, this country will bear witness to record numbers of homes entering the sheriff sale process – and no one wants to see that happen.

I look forward to working with Philadelphia City Council, the state authorities responsible for disbursing the Homeowners Assistance Fund to municipalities, homeowner advocacy groups, and anyone else who has a plan to mitigate this looming crisis.”

If you want to reach out and let us know what you think find us on our Twitter page and tweet at us!

Every day is a Salvador Dali painting. Particularly the one with the melting clocks. Oddly enough, it is not because of the idea that “time is an illusion” has never been more relevant before now. Moreso, that the surrealist reality that I and, casually, the rest of the world are experiencing has identifiable elements—a clock, the fresh bloom of spring. But now, everything has been tilted on its head. A quick run to the grocery store is now a potential death march. The level of strategy that I am grateful that I learned in college, in order for my roommates and me to get to the fewest amount of stores in the least amount of time as possible, is still useful today. Like the painting, we are a moment of history that will be remembered for the chaos and inspiration.

I am a teacher with degrees, aspirations, and more goals than hobbies. I love my students, appreciate my coworkers, and grateful for the leadership from my administration. At least we are getting leadership from somewhere. In the beginning, admittedly, we as a school could have planned better. A few coworkers had been murmuring about this for months, warning all of us to take the extra precaution of washing our hands and covering our mouth. It was nearly a month later until our school closed—sadly, we were some of the last schools to do so. I will argue that no one knew. How could we? No one could have known. No one on our level, a public citizen level. However, even though we were hesitant to close, to deny our students the best education for the time at hand, we prepared for the long term–not just one or two weeks, but months. Even though our life was getting more and more surreal, disjointed and warped, my fellow educators and I still lesson planned, called parents, answered the same 79 million questions from students about submitting homework. We still persevered.

According to the government, I am young. I am one of those desensitized millennials who has lived through Y2K, a millennia change, 9/11, US’s first black president—Barack Obama, and the regression of the Wingéd Dorito who has lead this country into the ground. I continuously look at world news outlets and get weirdly jealous of how many other countries are claiming: “We flattened the curve because our president knows what he’s doing” or “Our leadership listened to the CDC for recommendations early”. Teases. Simple things like this would keep me from missing work. How I long for the days where the most annoying thing I had to worry about is how I was going to grade papers, clean my apartment, and go grocery shopping all in one weekend. Now, all of my papers are graded, much to the demise of my students who are tried to enjoy their Spring Break. My apartment is a reflection of my creeping depression, but at least I have an overabundance of time to clean. And my pantries and fridge are stocked for the next two weeks so there is no reason to leave the illusion that is the protection of my home. I love that I have time for all the things I said I would do if I had time, I lie from my bed as I continuously scroll through my phone.

All the boring shit that I attributed to my status of an emerging adult is now piled on top of what feels like the longest weekend ever/apocalypse. I am being overly dramatic as I say apocalypse; we are just in a financial, social, and health downturn that has no clear end in sight. I can joke with my friends that in a few years’ time Tyler Perry is going to write a movie about the Coronavirus and the black stereotyping that follows that fun hour and 37 minutes, but that still does not lessen the fact that we are not living the normal. But as I struggle to come up with how to end this article, it is mostly because we are in the middle of everything. We are still living in this crisis.

            We are still living in “unprecedented times”. A loaded buzz worded phrase that simply means that no one still living knows what the damn hell to do, but stay home until we figure it out. I knew things were getting real because my credit card, phone bill, and rent are saying “Nah fam, do what you can in times of need, we got you in this time of crisis.” Even though the majority of us are sitting idle, we can still be active in supporting our community. As a teacher, I am being 100% a teacher for my students as I answer emails or setup google hangout office hours. Make a TikToc, facetime your best friend who might not be coping as well as you are at this time, text an extrovert because you know they are needing to talk to someone. I know, if you are bored and have a minute, thank an essential worker who is willing to do no contact deliveries or respect the handwashing game that they have perfected as they do it 9,000 times a day. We as a country have enough time on our hands to read a political article so we know who to vote for when our world does start once again because it will. If our history has shown us anything, we are built to last and not going fucking anywhere.

2020 certainly came in with a bang didn’t it?! I think most of us visualized the future as the following: driving flying cars, wearing flashy metallic outfits, witnessing flying saucers, and operating fancy gadgets (insert “The Jetsons” here). What we were NOT considering was 2020 ushering in a virus so dangerous that the entire world would be at a standstill. As an independent contractor for an education agency, I recently discovered that as a result of COVID-19, I’m now jobless. Not only are all schools closed for the remainder of the school year, but Mayor Kenney foresees social distancing occurring throughout the summer months too. Due to these unfortunate times, I’m sure the majority of us have asked ourselves “now what?”

Personally, after adjusting to this new normal of being home and social distancing, I had to find ways to maintain routine and purpose in my life. Aside from being an educator, I am an actress and model who was still in production for a feature film and prepping to walk in Miami Fashion Week. I was also getting into shape and started going to a gym with a friend. As of now, all of that has been interrupted…so what’s one to do? Well, after feeling sorry for myself a bit and using sleep as a way to pass the time, I decided to remember all of the talents I was blessed with and to remember that nothing will change if there is no change. Still, I continued to wake up, shower, get dressed, and do my hair and makeup as if I had somewhere to go. I began designating times to complete certain tasks and started to sew again. At the end of the day, people always admire creativity and are willing to support a quality product. My suggestion to everyone is to remember who you are at your core. If COVID-19 taught us anything, it taught us how much jobs cannot be relied on. The good news is that once you discover your passion, embrace it, and hone your skills, you arrive at success. Social media is at all of our fingertips as well. This is the time for all of us to refresh and rebrand ourselves. Stay encouraged and safe!!!