Detroiters can now get free estate planning, legal help to keep their family homes

Free estate planning and legal services are now available to help Detroiters keep their family homes.

On Wednesday, the city of Detroit, the Gilbert Family Foundation and Detroit City Council Member Scott Benson announced programming, including workshops and probate services, to help residents maintain their properties and preserve the equity in homes passed on from generation to generation.

The services are important, officials say, because there are at least 5,500 intergenerational properties in Detroit — worth more than $268 million — with unclear ownership, according to a report released earlier this year by the think tank Detroit Future City.

Often referred to as heirs’ properties, or tangled titles, they involve a legal situation arising when a person dies and leaves behind a property without formal legal documents, like a will, to prove who owns it. Title problems can prevent people from getting into assistance programs that help pay for home repairs or property tax relief. Without the aid, homes could fall into property tax foreclosure. When a title doesn't transfer within a family, it can be a barrier for families to building generational wealth through their homes.

“For most Detroiters, their home is the foundation of their family’s generational wealth. With home values rising each year in the City of Detroit, ensuring homes can be handed down from one generation to the next is even more essential,” Mayor Mike Duggan said in a news release.

In partnership with Neighborhood Legal Services, the city of Detroit is using $668,000 in American Rescue Plan Act dollars to offer free advice to more than 3,000 households as well as will and estate planning services to about 720 families. Workshops begin next week.

Separately, the Gilbert Family Foundation is putting in $1.5 million over two years so Lakeshore Legal Aid and Michigan Legal Services can represent the nearly 500 Detroit families living in heirs' properties who are at immediate risk of tax foreclosure.

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"We are deeply committed to protecting legacy Detroit homeowners from displacement. Preserving these family homes is essential not only to building intergenerational wealth, but also ensuring the long-term stability of Detroit families and neighborhoods," Laura Grannemann, executive director of the Gilbert Family Foundation, said in the news release.

Benson, who represents District 3 and also chairs the city of Detroit's Wealth Generation Task Force, said a key finding from his group was the lack of estate planning among Detroiters and how that can hinder the ability of Black families to build wealth.

How to get help

Sign up for upcoming summer workshops at detroithousingnetwork.my.site.com/portal/s/workshop-registration. More workshops are expected later this year and in 2025. Registration is required.

• Matrix Human Services (in person): 13560 E. McNichols Road; 1 p.m.-3 p.m., Thursday, June 20

• Jefferson East Inc. (virtual): 11 a.m.-1 p.m., Saturday, July 13

• Bridging Communities (virtual): 5 p.m.-7 p.m., Monday, Aug. 5

Eligible residents can get free legal services through the workshops. To qualify for the city of Detroit's program, Detroiters must own a home in the city and can earn up to 300% of the federal poverty level, or $77,460 for a family of three.

Those seeking help from the Gilbert Family Foundation program must meet income requirements for the Homeowners Property Tax Exemption program (HOPE), live in a home that was passed down from the previous generation and be at risk of tax foreclosure. They must also work with the Detroit Housing Network, a city-led coalition of housing service providers, for this program. To reach the Detroit Housing Network and for more information, call the Detroit Housing Resource HelpLine at 866-313-2520.

Contact Nushrat Rahman: [email protected]. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter: @NushratR.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Free estate planning, legal services to help Detroiters save homes