Heirs’ Property Partner Retreat to Yield Everlasting Results

This summer, LISC Jacksonville hosted a two-day Heirs’ Property Partner Retreat, gathering more than a dozen local organizations who provide a variety of services to community residents and families. The purpose of the retreat was to brainstorm, strategize, and share resources, successes, and challenges among partners invested in the important work of addressing and solving the issue of heirs’ property in our community.

Duval County has the densest concentration of heirs’ property parcels in the southeast region, meaning a significant number of local families do not have clear titles to the homes they rightfully inherited. Due to this issue, which disproportionately impacts BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) families and urban neighborhoods, these families experience a very vulnerable housing and ownership status, where they risk losing their homes.

“Ever since we began this work two years ago, the level of engagement among community partners and funders has only continued to grow,” said Kristopher Smith, community development program officer for LISC Jacksonville, who leads the organization’s heirs’ property work. “The retreat was an important step in further catalyzing our community’s response to the issue of heirs’ property and aligning efforts to ensure no stone is left unturned.”

The retreat also addressed specific ways that partners can engage their communities more deeply in the issue of heirs’ property, all with the goal of educating people on the issue to then either correct title issues or prevent heirs’ property from occurring. Strategies discussed include:

• Leveraging LISC Jacksonville’s heirs’ property toolkit, which includes tools for spokespeople, visuals and graphics, talking points, and a variety of handouts and other resources. The toolkit is accessible here.  
• Personalizing storytelling and making interactions personal. Storytelling is vital to understanding, acceptance, and trust, which motivates action.

LISC Jacksonville has additional heirs’ property events coming up, including an Estate Planning Forum, similar to last year’s Forum, in October. Details and dates will be released soon.

More information about LISC Jacksonville’s heirs’ property work is available here.