Heirs’ Property Work Continues to Build Momentum

Ever since first identifying the issue of heirs’ property or “tangled titles” locally in the summer of 2020, LISC Jacksonville has been leading the community effort to heighten awareness and bolster the capacity of multiple organizations working to solve this issue. To date, LISC Jacksonville has secured funding from a variety of foundations and private and corporate donors to understand, address, and resolve heirs’ property, keep families in their homes, and help preserve or build generational wealth. This important work, which so far has helped more than 50 families obtain clear titles to their homes and preserve more than $3.7 million in housing value for those families, continues to build momentum.

“During the past three years, we have made notable headway by assembling the right partners who each have a genuine vested interest in heirs’ property from both an individual homeowner and overall community development perspective,” said Kristopher Smith, community development program officer for LISC Jacksonville. “Through our collaboration and LISC’s investment, we continue to identify opportunities and barriers that partners are experiencing as we work to ramp up our community’s capacity to address and resolve this issue. We have much more work to do, but we are making significant progress, and we’re grateful for our partners’ involvement and support during this whole process.”

Recent workshop hosted by LISC Jacksonville and The Behavioral Insights Team.

Recently, LISC Jacksonville invited The Behavioral Insights Team to town to lead a valuable discussion with multiple partners to take a closer look at how all organizations involved engage the community in the issue of heirs’ property. Community Development Corporations (CDCs), legal aid partners, local universities and churches, and others participated in a half-day workshop that took a deep dive into messaging, outreach, and materials used to communicate this issue to people possessing heirs’ property. The process identified communication barriers, opportunities to improve messaging and materials, and behavioral aspects involved with moving target audiences to action – some of whom possess a lack of trust when it comes to legal or financial services.

“Our mission from the very beginning has been clear: help as many people as possible obtain clear titles to the homes they have rightfully inherited,” said Smith. “Our recent workshop is just one example of many ways we have been working to not only increase capacity, but make sure that current efforts are as impactful and efficient as possible in reversing this issue locally. We have worked hard to be a leader in this effort, all for very important reasons, and that work is paying off.”

LISC Jacksonville continues to be a thought leader on heirs’ property and has, during the past three years, conducted numerous speaking engagements locally, regionally, and nationally to discuss the issue, the resolve, and how heirs’ property directly relates to many other long-term issues facing under-resourced communities. Earlier this year, LISC formally announced its work in this area during an event at The Jessie in downtown Jacksonville (read more about it here), which helped propel further interest and support for addressing this issue.

LISC Jacksonville's event in February 2023 at The Jessie that introduced heirs' property to numerous community stakeholders.

“As we look to the future, we will continue to play a leading role in the community discussion, build collaboration and capacity across all partners, and secure additional funding opportunities,” added Smith.

To read more about LISC Jacksonville’s work on heirs’ property, click here.