Heirs' property resolution and prevention: Jacksonville, FL

Loss of home ownership compromises low-income family wealth creation: In Jacksonville, displacement in majority Black neighborhoods was exacerbating the racial wealth gap. To counter this trend, LISC Jacksonville, a community development organization, began searching for solutions that would bolster family wealth and preserve homeownership in these communities. Led by Program Officers Kristopher Smith and John Sapora, LISC Jacksonville discovered that the root of much displacement was a prevalent but little-known legal issue related to property inheritance, called “heirs' properties” or "tangled titles”.

Opaque inheritance law creates an heirs’ property: Heirs’ Properties occur when a homeowner dies without formal estate planning to establish the new legal titleholder. When this happens, it is legally unclear who the rightful owner of the home is. In many cases, the rightful owner is a child of the original owner who lives and pays taxes on the property. There is no process by which an heir is notified that their home has become an heirs’ property. In Jacksonville, advocates estimate there are over 10,000 heirs’ properties–one of highest concentrations in any urban market in the country. Black neighborhoods are disproportionately affected by heirs’ properties for a variety of reasons, including the disproportionate enforcement of municipal code violations in these neighborhoods that result in property liens. Because heirs’ properties increase the likelihood of home or property loss, they risk family wealth loss.

A host of negative side effects: Without their name on the property deed, rightful owners often lack access to homeownership benefits like home equity or maintenance loans, disaster relief funds, or tax exemptions, increasing the risk of blight and abandonment. If there are outstanding taxes or liens on the property, it may be sent to tax auction: In many states, including Florida, when an owner does not pay property taxes on time, county governments may, without notifying the owner, issue tax certificates, whereby a third party may purchase the rights to the taxes. If the back taxes remain unpaid after two years, the owner of the tax certificate may petition the county to auction the property, pay off other outstanding liens, and seize ownership of the property. Additionally, if there are multiple rightful heirs, a "partition sale" can be forced, both of which may cause a loss of ownership, Furthermore, heir’s properties are generally undervalued: In Jacksonville, heirs’ properties are estimated to be valued at 50% of non-heirs’ properties.

Probate court is required to designate the proper owner on the title: Once a home becomes an heirs’ property, the heirs must go through probate court and have a judge formally designate the rightful owners of the property on a deed. Many low-income residents in communities of color lack access to legal representation and experience navigating bureaucratic legal processes. Furthermore, centuries of exploitation and marginalization of Black communities at the hands of those in power have fostered a valid and lasting distrust of government and legal institutions, resulting in a reluctance to engage with such processes.

Predatory investors capitalize on opportunity: Increasingly, large-scale or institutional investors have recognized the opportunity to acquire property via a variety of methods, including tax certificate sales, partial ownership acquisition and subsequent partition sales, and otherwise offering buyouts to homeowners who are unable to get out from underneath municipal liens. In Jacksonville, some neighborhoods with a high prevalence of heirs’ properties are adjacent to the location of a new Jacksonville Jaguars stadium, which has increased demand by investors for property in the vicinity. Residents of these areas have reported that neighbors and family members fall prey to offers from investors, exacerbating displacement and the erosion of their community. This has further seeded distrust among residents of any organization who claim to offer support with property-related issues.

Find, Preserve, Support: LISC Jacksonville developed a three step approach to identifying and resolving heirs’ property issues, a central strategy of its family wealth creation portfolio. The strategy intentionally focuses on halting the erosion of family wealth caused when generational, single-family homes become heirs’ properties and vulnerable to ownership loss.

Data-driven, proactive identification of heirs’ properties: LISC Jacksonville aims to locate heirs’ properties before they become vulnerable to tax auction. To do so, they have partnered with the Duval County Tax Assessor’s office, who helps package publicly available data, and Smart North Florida, who has built analytical tools that help LISC identify properties at the parcel-level that are likely to become heirs’ properties.

Engage residents via direct outreach and an ecosystem of partners: After identifying potential heirs’ properties, LISC Jacksonville conducts outreach and provides information to residents via a variety of methods to engage them in home preservation and support services. Residents whose property is identified as a potential heirs’ property by analytics may receive a mailer, while others may be directly engaged by neighborhood-based partners. These engagements generate referrals to the program, which are processed and managed by a program navigator.

Connect residents to legal support: After the program navigator works with each client to collect necessary information and confirm that their property is indeed an heirs’ property, their case is referred to LISC Jacksonville’s legal aid partner, Three Rivers LLC. There, one of three attorneys who are dedicated to heirs’ property work handles the legal case and supports the client through the probate process in which the title issue is resolved in court and transferred into the rightful owner’s name.

Provide property tax debt relief: If needed, LISC Jacksonville concurrently provides no-cost property tax debt relief, technically called “property tax certificate redemption”, to stabilize the property’s ownership while the owners are working with Three Rivers to complete the legal process. This is a crucial step because owners cannot complete probate if there is outstanding tax debt owed on the property. Relief amount is typically capped at $2500 per unit.

Home ownership support services: After probate is complete and home ownership is stabilized, LISC Jacksonville connects homeowners to various services to help ensure the ongoing stability of ownership and safety of the home. This first includes helping homeowners re-enroll in tax exemptions they may have been precluded from utilizing previously, helping to reduce the tax burden to manageable levels after a significant valuation increase when probate is complete. To help identify other potential exemptions, LISC Jacksonville partners with social service organizations, like senior citizen centers. Additionally, LISC supports homeowners in accessing funding or programs that provide home repairs to ensure the home is in safe, sustainable condition and therefore not vulnerable to municipal code violations. Finally, LISC engages the broader community in continued education and prevention efforts by connecting homeowners to resources that support estate planning.

Ecosystem of trusted partners facilitating resident engagement: LISC has developed a surrogate model for resident engagement, wherein they train community leaders–including staff at community-based organizations, community development organizations, faith-based institutions, and other civic organizations– to inform residents about the issue of heirs’ properties. LISC Jacksonville’s Heirs’ Property Toolkit provides resources including presentations, handouts, talking points, and other media that can be utilized by outreach surrogates to engage residents. This allows them to rely on trusted neighborhood actors to engage residents at a scale they could not achieve if relying on programmatic staff alone. Some of these organizations receive sub-grants from LISC Jacksonville, while others participate on a volunteer basis.

Strategic use of public data: LISC Jacksonville and Smart North Florida analyze publicly available data to understand the scope of the problem and pinpoint precisely where heirs’ properties are located. They look at indicators such as amount of property tax in arrears and others to understand when a property may be an heirs’ property.

Local leadership and dedicated staff: Given the complexity and scale of the issue, dedicated staff with local knowledge is crucial. LISC Jacksonville staff serve as the connective tissue that keeps the ecosystem of partners in sync, navigates institutions, and refines the program. Additionally, the program supports a dedicated program navigator who supports residents through the process, as well as three dedicated legal aid attorneys at Three Rivers LLC.

Streamlined process for referrals: The ecosystem of neighborhood-based partners directs all referrals through the program’s navigator, who is able to then collect all necessary information and documents from clients, assess which services may be appropriate for them and link them to Three Rivers or other services.

LISC Jacksonville: LISC Jacksonville initiated and continues to house the Heirs’ Property Program. They manage program strategy, coordinate the ecosystem of partners engaged in the work, secure ongoing funding from philanthropic partners, and work to expand the program outside of Duval County and Florida. Community Development Program Officer Kristopher Smith and Housing Resiliency Program Officer John Sapora lead the initiative.

Three Rivers LLC: Three Rivers LLC, a Jacksonville-based legal aid firm, is the primary partner that handles the legal case and supports heirs’ properties owners that are referred to the program through probate court. The funding they receive through the program supports three attorneys who work full time on heirs’ properties cases, as well as several paralegals.

Smart North Florida: Smart North Florida is an innovation-focused nonprofit that applies data and technology to public issues. They are LISC Jacksonville’s primary data partner, and they built the analytical tools that are central to the process to identify heirs’ properties. Smart North Florida also employed a group of fellows from Jacksonville University, who conducted initial research on the scale of heirs’ properties in Jacksonville and helped Three Rivers LLC optimize their intake process.

Duval County Property Assessor’s Office: The Property Assessor’s Office is the public entity responsible for appraising property for taxable value, processing property tax exemptions, and maintaining the official database of ownership for the county. They have supported LISC Jacksonville by helping to package the publicly available data used to identify heirs’ properties. Furthermore, as a result of their collaboration with LISC, the office now proactively removes homestead exemptions from known heirs’ properties to prevent them from resulting in a lien.

Community-Based Organizations: More than 40 community-based organizations are engaged in the program’s ecosystem, conduct outreach and educational presentations, and refer heirs’ properties residents to LISC Jacksonville and Three Rivers LLC for support. Various local community development corporations, including the North Riverside CDC, Wealth Watchers, Jacksonville Gullah Geechee Nation CDC, and Historic Eastside CDC, play particularly critical roles in connecting residents to the program. The program navigator role is housed within the Historic Eastside CDC.

Local, Regional and National Foundations: The Heirs’ Property Program has been supported financially by a host of philanthropic organizations, including the Community Foundation of Northeast Florida, who has provided ongoing operational and programmatic funding, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, United Way of Northeast Florida, Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, Baptist Health Foundation, and Wells Fargo Foundation.

Behavioral Insights Team: LISC Jacksonville partnered with the Behavioral Insights Team, a behavioral science consultancy, to refine their messaging and communications strategy to more effectively resonate with residents.

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta: The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, with whom the LISC Jacksonville Heirs’ Property Program team meets three times per year, serves as a thought partner and advisor to LISC. They advise on strategic direction and help ground the program in the broader regional context.

Partnering with trusted messengers with community credibility: By collaborating with organizations and individuals that are already trusted by Jacksonville residents, LISC Jacksonville has been able to quickly establish credibility and generate early wins that built confidence in the program among community members. Those early wins generated narrative testimony and word of mouth that has allowed the program to continue to expand and generate demand for services by raising public awareness about the prevalence and criticality of heirs’ properties.

Commitment by funders to ongoing support: Several funders of the program, including JPMorgan Chase Foundation and the Community Foundation for Northeast Florida, dedicated unrestricted, operational funding. This has enabled LISC Jacksonville to build out the program, experiment, and iterate until they established a workable model. This commitment to ongoing support has enabled the LISC Jacksonville team to seed the work and establish deeper trust within the community.

Marrying policy expertise with technical data skills: Due to their nuanced understanding of Jacksonville communities as well as housing and community development issues, LISC Jacksonville was able to precisely advise Smart North Florida on parameters that may identify heirs’ properties. This allowed for clear data governance, enabling Smart North Florida’s data scientists to create an effective tool.

Earning the trust of residents: Heirs’ properties disproportionately affect low-income communities of color–the same communities that have experienced marginalization and disinvestment at the hands of the government and financial institutions for generations. Given this history, residents of these neighborhoods are hesitant to engage with legal processes and the court system. This picture is further complicated by an increased prevalence of outside investors who offer buyouts and provide, in some cases, misinformation. A recognition of this challenge is one of the reasons LISC Jacksonville has approached the problem stepwise via its ecosystem of neighborhood partners. They have also found that demonstrating their intent and follow through via small wins–like providing property tax relief funds–helps earn the trust of residents who may then engage with the program further.

Locating heirs’ properties: Given the legal nuance and complicated nature of heirs’ properties, many heirs themselves may not know that their home is an heirs’ property until an issue arises and ownership is precarious. As such, it was difficult, especially at the program’s onset, for LISC Jacksonville to locate heirs’ properties–and even to quantify the scale of the problem in the city. Over time, LISC’s refined data-driven approach to identifying heirs’ properties in addition to the increased awareness driven by word-of-mouth has helped overcome this challenge.

Explaining the issue: The issue of heirs’ properties is complicated and difficult to understand even by those who work in housing and community development. LISC Jacksonville has found it challenging to explain the issue and employ messaging that makes it clear and simple to residents. To overcome this, LISC has sought feedback from residents and engaged the Behavioral Insights Team to help perfect its messaging.

State policy landscape: The creation of heirs’ properties is an issue created by the state policy environment in Florida, as is the case in most states where heirs’ properties are prevalent. To prevent the issue from recurring, statewide policy change is required. LISC Jacksonville aims to raise enough awareness about the issue at the state-level and nationally to instigate a broader movement for policy change.