Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta has announced a new, $5 million program for families at risk of losing their homes because they lack legally binding documentation showing they have clear titles to their properties.
The bank will start accepting applications Oct. 1 for its 2024 Heirs’ Property Family Wealth Protection Fund. At that time, community organizations, tribal entities, and local governments or municipalities can apply for $500,000 in grant funding to help families and homeowners in Georgia, Alabama, D.C., Florida, Maryland, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The application deadline is Oct. 31.
This year, Georgia Congresswoman Nikema Williams introduced federal legislation called the HEIRS Act, to help widen legal access through grant programs and encourage states to adopt a state law called the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act to protect property owners. She said she shared the same goal as the FHLBank Atlanta Program.
“Family homes and properties are key to generational wealth building, but all too often, this legacy is lost due to inadequate legal documentation,” Williams said in a statement.
Heirs’ property is the name given to land and homes handed down to relatives without a clear will or estate plan. The issue overwhelmingly impacts low-income families and people of color. It can lead to a fragile and fractured form of ownership, creating complex legal issues and family disputes. Living in a home without clear title can cut owners off from federal relief after a natural disaster, and assistance programs to prevent defaults and foreclosures.
Heirs’ property ownership and Jim Crow laws have been shown to deprive generations of Black farmers of their land and wealth. But heirs’ property touches other vulnerable families that may not have legally binding documents to show they own a home.
“In many cases, there may be folks who are living in a property they inherited but the property wasn’t properly probated after inheritance,” Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta executive vice president Reggie O’Shields told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “In that case, there may be multiple true legal owners or heirs in that property. So, it’s important that you know that your deed is properly reported in your name.”
In addition to preventing people from getting the financial assistance, those homes sometimes fall into disrepair and contribute to neighborhood blight, according to FHLBank Atlanta executive Tomeka Strickland.
A recent poll by FHLBank Atlanta and market research and analytics firm The Harris Poll suggests low-income households are at the greatest risk. The survey found 57% of homeowners with an annual income below $50,000 do not have a will, trust or estate plan. Meanwhile, 42% of them intend to leave their home to more than one heir.
When multiple relatives inherit a property it can create a tangled web of ownership that can become increasingly difficult to unknot. As property is handed down from one generation to another without clear title, it opens up the possibility that an increasing number of heirs — sometimes dozens of family members — can assert a claim to a home or land.
This leaves some people vulnerable to investors who may prey on households and buy up a stake from one of the heirs and then force a sale of the home.
A December 2023 Fannie Mae study found Georgia ranked seventh among the states with the most “likely” heirs’ properties, with 2,881. Florida ranked first with more than 23,000 likely heirs’ properties. According to the Georgia Heirs Property Law Center, there is as much as $47 billion in heirs’ property in Georgia alone.
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