“Seized and Sold” – The Concord Monitor’s investigation of how some localities across the state aggressively seize homes of persons who fall behind on property taxes. 

This story is part of a continuing series by Michaela Towfighi, a Report for America reporter with the Concord Monitor. The project is a collaboration between Report for America and Investigative Editing Corps.

“With the support of the Investigating Editing Corps, the Monitor was able to bring an important idea into reality for our readers. Through weekly meetings for more than a year, Deb Nelson and Sean Mussenden proved indispensable to the project for both collecting and analyzing years of data that was not easy to compile. Their pursuit of excellence sharpened the focus and content of this series, which exposes the immense power the government has to take residents’ homes for unpaid property taxes across New Hampshire and the impact it has on the lives of those homeowners.”

-Jonathan Van Fleet
Editor | Concord Monitor

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Editors: Deborah Nelson and Sean Mussenden

Deborah Nelson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who joined the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism faculty in 2006 after five years as the Washington investigations editor for The Los Angeles Times. Before that, she reported for The Washington Post, The Seattle Times and Chicago Sun-Times. Nelson has a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law and a B.S. in Journalism from Northern Illinois University. She also has a Graduate Certificate of Professional Studies in Multimedia Journalism from Merrill.

Sean Mussenden, a former Washington correspondent, is data editor for the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism and a senior lecturer of investigative data journalism at the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism. He previously oversaw an experiential, hands-on journalism training program at the Merrill College that is integral to the college’s “teaching hospital” model of professional instruction: Capital News Service. He also teaches traditional courses incorporating data journalism, computational journalism, data visualization, programming, and investigative reporting.

Top image: John Jones lies in the hospital bed in the living room of his Franklin house as his partner, Jessica Helfenstein, worries about their future this past January. At that point, Jones and Helfenstein were working to reclaim their home after the city took ownership for unpaid taxes. GEOFF FORESTER / Monitor staff