'The biggest problem you've never heard of: Heirs property and Black property loss'

"Over the course of the entire 20th century, we know that Black farmers have lost about 12 million acres of land, total. ... These cases of dispossession can only be called 'theft'."

"We're just being forced out. They're trying to force us out."

In the wake of Hurricane Ida, a long-standing problem has returned to the fore: The loss of Black property through inadequate protections for the owners of heirs property.

In addition to the near-constant risk of losing the land itself, heirs property owners face legal hurdles in times of natural disaster. Property owners must be able to show a deed or other documentation in order to qualify for FEMA assistance, but heirs property is, by its nature, difficult or expensive to document. This leaves many disaster victims out in the cold, with no way to repair storm damage. This, in turn, puts their property at even greater risk of being bought out from under them, usually for a fraction of its value.

The impact of heirs property laws on Black families' intergenerational wealth has been — and continues to be — devastating. Likewise, entire communities have been destroyed as developers snap up lands which were owned by Black families since the post-Civil War era.

The problem continues — and will continue.

For a quick overview of the problem:

• FEMA Changes Document Rules For Assistance To Families Living On Heirs’ Property, a YouTube video, uploaded Sept. 2, 2021. (For map showing other effected minority groups, see 0:01:54)

• How Property Law Is Used to Appropriate Black Land, a YouTube video, uploaded Aug. 11, 2020.

• How Black Americans Were Robbed of Their Land, a YouTube video, uploaded Sept. 12, 2019.

• A Vanishing History: Gullah Geechee Nation, a YouTube video, uploaded Jan. 6, 2016.

For a more detailed understanding:

• The Biggest Problem You've Never Heard Of - Examining Heirs Property and Black Property Loss, a YouTube video, uploaded Jan. 30, 2020. (This panel discussion is "a collaboration between the Howard University School of Business, the Howard University School of Law, and New America to explore a critical and under-studied component of the racial wealth gap: property.")

• The Center For Heirs' Property Preservation presents: 5 Historic African American Communities, a YouTube video, uploaded Dec. 18, 2020. (This is a must watch, for its explanation of the impact of property loss on the poverty rate. Included is a discussion of highway construction on Black neighborhoods and cultural heritage, especially in the form of property loss.)

Selected articles:

• Their Family Bought Land One Generation After Slavery. The Reels Brothers Spent Eight Years in Jail for Refusing to Leave It., By Lizzie Presser, ProPublica, Jul. 15, 2019. (Through one family's story, the author illuminates the reasons heirs property is so common among minoritized people, as well as the laws and circumstances that lead to the loss of land — and consequently, the loss of intergenerational wealth.)

• What is Heirs Property?, a page of the Heirs' Property Retention Coalition website.

• Biden Administration to Invest $67 Million to Help Heirs Resolve Land Ownership and Succession Issues, USDA, Jul. 29, 2021.

• How to Close Heirs’ Property Loopholes, by Lizzie Presser, ProPulbica, Jul. 15, 2019

Resources for owners of heirs property:

• From the Land Trust Alliance, search results for “heirs property.” The Land Trust Alliance’s mission is to save the places people need and love by strengthening land conservation across America. We accomplish this by empowering and mobilizing land trusts in communities across America to conserve land — and connect people to the land — for the benefit of all.

• From the U.S. Department of Agriculture, search results for “heirs property.”

Originally posted Sept. 6, 2021.