News

Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation Awarded $100,000 in Funding

Published

2 years ago

February 22, 2023

Press Release

Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation announced that it has been awarded $100,000 in funding from Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta (FHLBank Atlanta), one of the 11 district banks in the Federal Home Loan Bank System.

The award is through the FHLBank Atlanta Heirs’ Property Prevention and Resolution Grant Initiative, announced last August. Funding through this initiative was made available to organizations that submitted pilot initiatives during the Heirs’ Property Prevention and Resolution Funders’ Forum, held on December 2, 2021.

“The Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation® has been a 501c3 non-profit organization in South Carolina since 2005,” said Dr. Jennie L. Stephens, CEO for the Center. “Our mission from day one has been to protect heirs’ property and promote the sustainable use of land to provide increased economic benefit to historically under-served families. We are pleased to be one of the organizations recognized by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta for our expertise and appreciate their support in our critical mission.”

Kirk Malmberg, President and Chief Executive Officer of FHLBank Atlanta, congratulated the Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation on being selected for an award.

“We are pleased to offer this award and we commend CHPP for working to solve and prevent issues associated with heirs’ property,” said Malmberg.

Arthur Fleming, FHLBank Atlanta’s Senior Vice President and Director of Community Investment Services, joined in congratulation CHPP and noted that aside from resolving heirs’ property issues, the goal of the initiative is to raise awareness among state and local governments, developers, and other organizations. “The funding we are providing to CHPP will not only help provide tangible relief to families and communities impacted by heirs’ property, it will also help bring more attention to this issue and hopefully spur additional involvement from other key stakeholders that have a vested interest in resolving and preventing heirs’ property,” said Fleming.

Heirs’ property occurs when a real property owner dies without a will that designates a successor owner, or without a recorded deed. It also occurs when property is left to multiple beneficiaries, resulting in a fractured or tangled title that is unmarketable and, if left unresolved, prevents the ability to sell, collateralize, improve, or otherwise transfer the property. Heirs’ property is a barrier to the accumulation of generational wealth, leads to neighborhood blight, and is pervasive issue that disproportionately impacts racial and ethnic minority, low-wealth, and distressed urban and rural communities.

The Center is a non-profit organization that protects heirs’ property and promotes the sustainable use of land to provide increased income to historically under-served landowners. Its services include legal and forestry education, direct legal services to resolve heirs’ property title issues, forestry land management services, technical assistance and connection to programs, and financial assistance to make these families’ land more profitable.

About the Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation

The Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation™ has been protecting heirs’ property through legal education and direct legal services since 2005. In 2013, the Center began promoting the sustainable use of land through forestry education and services to provide increased economic benefit to low-wealth family landowners. The Center provides legal and forestry services in Allendale, Bamberg, Beaufort, Berkeley, Calhoun, Charleston, Clarendon, Colleton, Darlington, Dillion, Dorchester, Florence, Georgetown, Hampton, Horry, Jasper, Lee, Marion, Marlboro, Orangeburg, Sumter and Williamsburg counties.

To date, the Center has provided 3,569 persons with free, one-hour “Advice and Counsel” (A&C) with 1,425 clients receiving direct legal services to clear title. A total of 1,501 simple wills have been drafted at free, community Wills Clinics; more than 574 families (who collectively own more than 40,000 acres) have benefited from various levels of education and expert resources to develop and implement sustainable forestry management plans and 330 titles have been cleared on family land with a total tax-assessed value of $21 million.