Debbie and Randy Blough spark mobile home project; receive 2022 PA Legal Aid Network Excellence Award for Lay Advocacy
Debbie and Randy Blough with their daughter, Kelly Blough, at the PLAN Excellence Awards ceremony March 22, 2022 at Hilton Harrisburg. They were honored for lay advocacy.
(March 31, 2022)
HARRISBURG - Retired scientists Debbie and Randy Blough were honored March 22, 2022 with the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network (PLAN) Excellence Award for Lay Advocacy.
In 2018, while volunteering for Honey Brook Food Pantry in Chester County, Debbie and Randy discovered that mobile homes are overtaxed. They researched the problem and successfully appealed 22 tax assessments on their own.
Since then, Debbie and Randy have worked with Legal Aid of Southeastern PA and United Way of Chester County to develop the Chester County Mobile Home Tax Reassessment Project. From 2019-21, the partnership has helped 756 residents save an average of $883 per year per home, or almost $10.7 million over 10 years.
“This project would not exist without the Bloughs' inspired lay advocacy to help Chester County residents,” said Rachel Houseman, LASP Chester County Managing Attorney.
In accepting their PLAN Excellence Award, Randy said, "Thank you for this honor. My greatest pleasure in the early stages of this campaign was working hand-in-hand with my wonderful wife, Debbie. We both deeply appreciate the Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania and United Way picked up our fledgling effort with their fine leadership, enthusiasm and exceptional talent. Although the project continues into 2022, a huge amount of work remains, some of it uncharted, before we can say that all mobile home owners are fairly taxed. So we're hoping others might look at this issue, see the moral imperative and decide if you could play a role."
Debbie noted, "Our clients are wholesome folks. Many struggle paycheck to paycheck. These are the homeowners who are the least able to afford and suffer over-taxation. ...Thank you. Let's keep going."
A short video honoring Debbie and Randy's work, and other 2022 PLAN Excellence Awards honorees, is available at: https://bit.ly/plan-awards-2022.
For more information, see lasp.org/chester-county-mobile-home-tax-reassessments.
To volunteer, please contact Brian Doyle, LASP Staff Attorney and Chester County Pro Bono Coordinator, at 484-416-4259 x5210 or bdoyle@lasp.org.
MEDIA CONTACT: Marion Hoffman Fraley, Communications Director, at 484-212-5875 or mfraley@lasp.org
LASP staff join PLAN Excellence Award winners Debbie and Randy Blough and daughter Kelly Blough after the ceremony at Hilton Harrisburg. From left: Kelly (back row), Debbie and Randy Blough; Kesha James, Deputy Director for Advocacy; Shawn Boehringer, Executive Director; Brian Doyle, Staff Attorney and Chester County Pro Bono Coordinator; Christina Drzal, Regional Housing Unit Supervising Attorney; and Marion Hoffman Fraley, Communications Director.