A new initiative aims to help people in Detroit who may not own the family property they’re living in gain clear ownership of those properties.
It’s called the Detroit Heirs’ Property program. A property is considered an heirs’ property when it’s passed down through the generations among family members without a formal will or estate plan, usually meaning the home’s current occupant is not on the deed and does not legally own it. Without a clear path to title and legal ownership, such homeowners often find themselves trying to resolve things in probate court, which can be a lengthy and cumbersome process.
A recent report from the group Detroit Future City found there are probably at least 5,525 such properties in Detroit. Those are homes where the owners listed on tax rolls are known to be deceased. Likely heirs’ properties tend to be concentrated in a handful of Detroit neighborhoods.
Being the current occupant of an heirs’ property comes with inherent disadvantages, according to Rob Lockett, executive director of LISC Detroit, one of the new program’s partners.
“You cannot access certain city services, (and there are) certain loan products you cannot access, without having clear identification of homeownership,” said Lockett. Those things range from city home repair programs, to being unable to tap into a home’s equity because you don’t legally own the property.
Promoting generational wealth through home ownership is an important focus for the initiative, said Anna Shires of Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis, another program partner.
“Property values are rising,” Shires said. “Everybody needs to be able to take advantage of that, and use that equity to really build that generational wealth.”
The program itself has multiple components. Its basic aim is to provide the legal aid and other services people living in heirs’ properties would need to gain clear, formal ownership of their family home. It will also help with other related needs including estate planning, will preparation, and power of attorney.
Another key component is an emphasis on specific community needs, and working with already established community groups in the most impacted neighborhoods. Those groups can work on spreading the word about the program to community members, helping to build connections and get the program running from the ground up.
“What we want to do with our program is really coordinate and work with community partners on the ground,” said Jacqueline Burau of LISC Detroit. “They are our first line of trust with folks in their neighborhoods.”
The Detroit Heirs’ Property program will build on, and work in conjunction with, the city of Detroit and the Gilbert Family Foundation, who have been doing similar work in the city for about a year now. The city-sponsored program, however, is more specifically targeted at people living in heirs’ properties that are at risk of property tax foreclosure. The new program will also offer specific help in cases where title is disputed or there are “fractured deeds,” meaning there are multiple people listed on the deed and no single clear owner.
The program aims to smart small, in a handful of identified Detroit neighborhoods, and build up from there, Shires added.
“We’re really trying to put a systems focus in place with the coalition-building,” Shires said. “We really want to be intentional about the neighborhood organizations that we start working with, [who] have those built relationships with the residents in those communities. And then to kind of think through how we're going to learn, take all those learnings, and really apply it on a wider scale.”
