Center for Community Progress Announces Recipients of Clearing Title, Catalyzing Neighborhoods Awards with Support from $3M Wells Fargo Foundation Grant

Sixteen nonprofit organizations receive awards to provide education or support to families experiencing heirs’ property challenges.

FLINT, MICHIGAN – The Center for Community Progress (Community Progress) and the Wells Fargo Foundation today announced the recipients of Clearing Title, Catalyzing Neighborhoods awards to 16 nonprofit organizations working to address heirs’ property challenges that contribute to vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties and undermine neighborhood stability. Through this project, generously supported by a $3 million grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation, Community Progress will serve as intermediary in the foundation’s philanthropic investment in housing. The awarded organizations will focus on educating policymakers about the impact of heirs’ property, as well as directly support families experiencing heirs’ property issues.

When a property owner dies without a will or estate plan, ownership can become fractional or unrecorded, resulting in cloudy title. These unresolved property issues become more complex over time and are referred to as heirs’ property, tangled title, family property, or family land. Probate courts can clarify property distribution, but some family members may be unaware of probate, lack the resources to use it, or distrust the system. The lack of a clear plan of succession can set properties on the path to deterioration and abandonment and prevent properties from being repurposed or reoccupied, harming a community’s stability or revitalization efforts.

Heirs’ properties can remain vacant or in serious disrepair for years, as title issues make it difficult or impossible for heirs to insure a property, access repair or rehabilitation resources, get property tax relief, or sell the property. Some heirs may lack the resources or interest to maintain a property, while others may not even know they hold an ownership stake. Local government systems that respond to property vacancy and deterioration challenges (such as code enforcement or delinquent property tax enforcement) are rarely equipped to assist heirs with title issues—which can cost tens of thousands of dollars to resolve. And systems that engage heirs through probate are seldom designed to address property condition challenges. As a result, nonprofit organizations play a critical role in bridging these municipal silos and connecting families to solutions.

“These grants are an investment in organizations working directly with families on systemic solutions that build generational wealth,” said Kathleen Guillaume-Delemar, President and CEO of Community Progress. “We are proud to support their critical work on the ground and are grateful for our ongoing – collaboration with the Wells Fargo Foundation in their commitment to people-centered community revitalization.”

“The Center for Community Progress is committed to helping people address heirs’ property issues,” said Darlene Goins, President of the Wells Fargo Foundation. “We support them in their mission as they empower individuals and families to preserve their wealth for future generations.”

The Clearing Title, Catalyzing Neighborhoods awards will support 16 nonprofit organizations and higher education institutes that have received funding from the Wells Fargo Foundation’s heirs’ property grant program within the past three years.

Award Recipients and Awarded Projects

• Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, Inc. (Florida)
• H.E.L.P. Community Development Corporation (Florida)
• Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc. (Florida)
• Local Initiatives Support Corporation (Florida)
• Middle Georgia Access to Justice Council, Inc (Georgia)
• Southeast Louisiana Legal Services (Louisiana)
• Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, Inc. (Missouri)
• Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service (Maryland)
• Centro de Apoyo Familiar (Massachusetts)
• Wake Forest University (North Carolina)
• Legal Aid of North Carolina, Inc. (North Carolina)
• Community Legal Services, Inc. (Pennsylvania)
• Affordable Housing Centers of Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania)
• Housing Assistance Council (Puerto Rico)
• Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation (South Carolina)
• Asset Funders Network (Texas)

Support for this award program was generously provided by the Wells Fargo Foundation.

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About Community Progress: The Center for Community Progress helps people to transform vacant spaces into vibrant places. Since 2010, their team of experts has provided urban, suburban, and rural communities looking to revitalize vacant properties with the tools and resources needed to address those properties at the policy and systems level. As the only national nonprofit dedicated to vacant property revitalization, Community Progress drives change by uncovering and disrupting systems that perpetuate entrenched vacancy and property deterioration. Community Progress has delivered customized, expert guidance to leaders in over 300 communities and provided hundreds of hours of free educational resources as well as leadership programming to help policymakers, practitioners, and community members across the country return properties to productive use. To learn more and get help for your community, visit communityprogress.org.