On July 13, the mayor of Greenfield issued a statement regarding her position on the subject of “taking” property for back taxes, and the city’s policy of keeping all the excess home equity of property owners at a foreclosure auction. She wrote: “Presently, there is no legal mechanism for paying owners back for any equity the city may have retained in the past after all legal fees and expenses have been paid.”

In August, the Massachusetts Land Court issued a statement that said that plaintiffs who bring excess home equity takings cases to court “will be compensated.”

In July and September we testified before the Greenfield City Council that the city should offer property owners compensation for any excess equity taken, plus interest.

At a legislative hearing on Beacon Hill, the first assistant attorney general for Massachusetts, Patrick Moore, told legislators that tax title taking in Massachusetts permits “classic unconstitutional taking.” Because our state extinguishes the right of homeowners to any of their equity after lien proceedings start, Moore added: “This central feature of the Massachusetts tax foreclosure process cannot be distinguished from the one the Supreme Court struck down.”

There are now two lawsuits pending in federal court to return the equity stolen by Greenfield from these former homeowners. Rather than making these property owners financially whole, the city has filed a motion to dismiss these cases.

On Dec. 20, during a City Council discussion about a downtown commercial property on Main Street, it was revealed by the director of finance that although the City Council had not “officially voted” to stop taking tax title properties to auction, the administration had told the council it would pause the sale of properties taken for back taxes.

This debate is not just about the sale of foreclosed homes. Some towns have chosen to impose liens and not go to auction until the owner dies or sells the home. But after all these months of debate, the City Council has taken no clear vote on repaying people who have already lost their property.

Greenfield has had months to make these families whole. We need a formal, permanent moratorium on the unconstitutional theft of home equity that was never legally ours to keep.

Every other city and town in our state that is ignoring the U.S. Supreme Court ruling from seven months ago should get out their checkbook now and make reparation payments to those they cheated.

Joan Marie Jackson and Mitchell Speight live in Greenfield.