Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas and ABC7 Chicago will host the final phone bank of the year for Black and Latino Houses Matter on Thursday, December 9.

It will be the fifth phone bank in 2021 conducted by the Treasurer’s Office to help Cook County taxpayers find refunds and apply for property tax exemptions. Almost $20 million in taxpayer refunds was identified during the first four events.

The phone banks are part of Pappas’ effort to preserve homeownership and remove properties from the Tax Sale. A disproportionate number of properties on the list are in majority Black and Latino communities.

Since March 2020, the Treasurer’s Office has returned more than $92 million to majority Black communities in Cook County and more than $48 million to majority Latino communities.

"It’s so gratifying to see the results of these phone banks with ABC7 as well as the other outreach events I have organized throughout Cook County – and I’m not done," Pappas said. "I look forward to continuing my efforts to preserve homeownership and create generational wealth in communities of color."

Samantha Chatman, consumer investigative reporter with ABC 7’s I-Team, will report on the phone bank throughout out the day. A team from the Treasurer’s Office, fluent in Spanish, Polish, Chinese and English will:

• Search $84 million in available property tax refunds
• Check if you are eligible for $34 million in missing tax exemptions
• Verify if your property is on the Tax Sale list with delinquent taxes

Property owners can call the phone bank at (312) 603-5105 from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.