‘I Was Not OK’: Georgia County Demolishes Black Man’s Home Without Notice That He Was Restoring to Create Generational Wealth for His Family

Eric Arnold, a Black man who spent decades working as a renovator and carpenter, purchased a home in Georgia in February 2022 to renovate it in the hopes of eventually providing a home for his children and grandchildren who live in New Jersey.But Macon-Bibb County officials demolished the home without informing him or allowing him the opportunity to challenge the decision in court.Last week, Arnold filed a lawsuit against Macon-Bibb County, accusing the county of violating his constitutional rights by destroying his home without due process and for retaliating against him for trying to stop the demolition. He is at least the ninth homeowner to sue the county over having their homes demolished without due process under the “blight tax” ordinance passed in 2019 to raise money for the county by demolishing blighted homes, which it describes as an “uninhabitable, unsafe, or abandoned structure.”But photos show that Arnold made significant improvements to the house over the 21 months since buying it before it was demolished.The lawsuit filed by the Institute for Justice on behalf of Arnold, which is a libertarian nonprofit seeking to “end widespread abuses of government power,” states the county went through with the demolition to teach Arnold...