How would you feel if you came home one day to find a letter from the city saying that it had declared your home and the homes in your neighborhood “blighted,” even though an inspection had never been performed, and that this gave the city the legal authority to use eminent domain to take any of these homes at any time in the next five years.

That’s what happened to me earlier this year when city officials  in Ogden, Utah tried to declare my home, along with more than 300 others in a nine-block area, “blighted” and in need of “urban renewal.”

The city started a process that has lead to horrible uncertainty for me, and may ultimately mean I will  have to watch my home and my neighbors’ homes be bulldozed to make way for developments the city has decided are more preferable.

But my home’s not “blighted.” My home is beautiful. So I’m standing up with my neighbors to fight the city’s illegitimate efforts to declare our perfectly fine homes defective, dangerous, or worse, and to defend our rights as homeowners.

I have lived in my home for thirty years. The moment I saw it, I knew it was perfect. It was within walking distance of my church, restaurants, parks, and so much more.

For me, it is much more than just four walls and a roof—it is a memorial to the twenty-six years I spent with my husband, who recently passed away from cancer. As I approach retirement, it gives me the peace of mind that I’ll be able to retire to live out my golden years surrounded by the memories we had living here together, without having to worry about having to pay rent or a mortgage.

But if Ogden officials get their way, I might be forced out. I have no idea where I’d go.

The city officials have assured me and my neighbors that they won’t take our homes. Yet they have refused to put those assurances in writing. Instead, a city official admitted to the local newspaper that he wants to use eminent domain—the legal term for when a government takes away someone’s property—as a “trump card” to “leverage” homeowners.

That’s no way to treat your citizens. Cities shouldn’t be in the business of “leveraging” their residents.

If Ogden wants to improve my neighborhood, that’s great. But there are plenty of opportunities to do so without forcing us out of our homes. In the meanwhile, the city needs to stand by its word and officially take eminent domain off of the table.