In Washington, DC’s Trinidad neighborhood, about a mile or so from Capitol Hill, stands a stately red brick home where Mattie and Gaston Powell raised their family. Serene on the outside, its walls hold generations of cherished family memories—anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas gatherings. But DC’s predatory property tax system now threatens to strip away both the home and every dollar of the home’s equity, erasing their American Dream and a trove of family history.
Gaston Powell, Sr. and his wife, Mattie Bell, raised 11 children in the home—seven sons and four daughters—creating a legacy meant to span generations.
After Mattie Bell passed away in 1995, and Gaston, Sr. in 2000, care of the property transferred to their eldest son, Gaston, Jr. For 20 years, Albert Powell, Gaston Powell, Jr.’s younger brother, lived in and cared for the family home.
But soon after Albert’s death in 2020, DC classified the house as vacant under the District’s vacant and blighted property tax code, jacking up the property taxes from 85 cents to $5 per $100 of value. For the Powell home, valued at around $588,000 at the time, yearly taxes jumped six-fold, from $5,000 to $30,000.
The family tried to keep up, paying $44,000 in taxes, but they could never get ahead of DC’s punitive taxes. When Gaston Powell, Jr. passed away in 2022, his widow Juanita—in her 80s—was left overwhelmed with complex legal paperwork and mounting tax bills.
In July 2023, DC sold the tax debt—then about $41,000—to a private company called Clear Sky Holdings. Notices declared that “the property has been sold,” leading Juanita and her family to believe that the home was already gone and they had lost any chance to sell it themselves and save their equity.
The next blow came in 2024, when DC reclassified their house as blighted, and again increased the tax rate to $10 per $100 of value. The family, thinking they’d already lost their home after the tax sale, didn’t fight this unfair label.
The result? Their debt quickly exploded from $41,000 to more than $231,000. The penalties on that amount are growing by about $500 per week on top of $31,000 every six months.
While DC allows homeowners to reclaim their property by paying the debt within six months, the District’s harsh penalties made this impossible for the Powells. In 2024, Clear Sky Holdings moved to take the house for good and went to court to foreclose the family’s right to redeem their property.
The Powell family may lose their home—now worth more than $713,000—and get nothing in return, while the District and private investors will pocket a massive windfall at their expense.
What did the family do wrong? They failed to find a renter after Albert died, and they failed to make repairs after they thought DC had already sold it to someone else. For these understandable mistakes, DC is taking their home and their equity in it—worth far more than they owe.
No property owner should lose the right to their wealth over minor violations or unpaid taxes. In fact, the U.S. Constitution protects this right in two important ways: the Takings Clause, which says the government can’t take more than it’s owed without paying just compensation, and the Excessive Fines Clause, which says punishments that far outweigh the offense are unconstitutional.
DC’s system violates both. The Supreme Court affirmed that the government violates the Takings Clause when it confiscates more than it is owed in PLF’s Tyler v. Hennepin County (2023) win. Further, the District’s penalties that turn a $6,000 yearly tax into $71,000 plus penalties, 18% interest, and fees is wildly out of proportion.
The Powell family deserves to keep the value of their home—not watch the government steal it through excessive penalties and an unfair system.
Represented at no charge by Pacific Legal Foundation, Gaston’s loved ones are fighting back against DC’s predatory tax foreclosure process and excessive penalties to ensure their family legacy and home’s equity aren’t wiped out by illegal government overreach.
What’s At Stake?
- The government can take property to collect unpaid taxes. But our Constitution and the Supreme Court’s Tyler v. Hennepin County decision are clear that taking more than what is owed is home equity theft and it’s illegal.
- Penalties, fines, and fees that a government imposes must be proportional to the problems the government seeks to address. Anything more is an unconstitutional excessive fine.
