Re: Lee Min Ho Ost The Heirs 16
Anastacia Iacono
The HEIRS Property Act would reauthorize the Heirs Property Intermediary Relending Program as well as amend existing law to direct the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to work with nonprofit organizations to provide pro-bono legal or accounting services in resolving ownership and succession of farmland for underserved limited-resource or socially disadvantaged heirs.
The North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers Land Loss Prevention Project has been working for more than forty years to provide legal resources, free of charge, to landowners across the state of North Carolina. One of the ever-present issues we encounter is the shared ownership of land by heirs and we work directly with families faced with the loss of their property due to mortgage and tax foreclosures and predatory action, including forced sales by outside parties. We also work to stabilize ownership so that families can engage in long term stewardship of resources and build economic well-being.
From the last Census of Agriculture, we see alarming statistics related to farmland loss and consolidation of ownership of farms, as we lose our smallest and mid-sized family farms. Challenges related to heir property ownership simply cannot be resolved without recognition of, and support for, legal strategies. Work by a dedicated network of trusted, community-based, nonprofits that have: 1) a specialized understanding of the nature and character of heir property; and 2) sufficient time and commitment to work with and for family owners, is essential.
Land Loss Prevention and the Rural Coalition strongly support the HEIRS Property Act, which by prioritizing funding for established nonprofits providing these vital legal and financial tools, will enable families to undertake a deliberate process with autonomy, rather than a reactionary response to pressure that occurs from forced sales or loss through foreclosure.
The Center for Heirs' Property Preservation is proud to be an original endorser of the Heirs Education and Investment to Resolve Succession of Property Act and I personally appreciate the incorporation of recommendations made by the Equity Commission regarding heirs' property. This legislation has the potential to change lives and landscapes across generations.
Middle Georgia Justice supports the HEIRS Property Act as a meaningful step towards addressing the staggering losses suffered by those who are affected by entangled family titles but who do not have the resources for legal representation to fight for and preserve their heirs' property rights.
This legislation would be transformative and allow non-profit organizations with a trusted record of assisting limited resource, underserved, and socially disadvantaged farmers obtain clear title to their land and prevent land loss.
We are excited about the potential for this legislation to help limited resource, underserved, and socially disadvantaged farmers keep, protect and utilize their land thereby building generational wealth.
After years and often decades of being locked out of economic building blocks of generational wealth, families can determine the path that is in their best interests without first accumulating insurmountable debt.
The National Black Food and Justice Alliance supports the HEIRS Property Act as a critical tool for land justice and to ensure resources to protect land stewarded through generations of Black family landowners.
Supporting the HEIRS Property Act is a critical step toward rectifying long-standing issues of property succession that disproportionately impact African American, Latino, indigenous, and low-income families. The Center for NYC Neighborhoods recognizes the profound impact that clear land titles have on the stability and prosperity of families and communities. This legislation not only aids in resolving legal complexities but also ensures the legacy and benefits of land ownership can be rightfully preserved and passed on to future family members. The Center fully supports this initiative as it aligns with our mission to protect and promote equitable homeownership.
Agricultural land ownership is vital for many communities and is a key issue for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) farmers and producers. Despite immense challenges, many African Americans acquired land following the Civil War and through the early 1900s by various means. Land ownership provides a measure of economic stability and supports local businesses, provides employment opportunities, and increases generational wealth.
Heirs' property is property passed to family members by inheritance, usually without a will or estate planning strategy. It is typically created when land is passed on from someone who dies without a will (intestate) to those legally entitled to their property, such as a spouse, children, other relatives.
However, if the title remains in the original owner's name, it is considered cloudy, negatively impacting the heirs. Land may pass through several generations without a will, increasing the number of heirs and causing complex legal issues. Heirs' property can be mitigated through appropriate business entities and succession planning.
Heirs' property is most predominant among African American landholders, contributing to land loss from 16 million to 4.7 million acres over the last hundred years. It is also an issue for Latinx families in the southwest, Indigenous families on reservations, and low-income families in Appalachia.
Featuring keynote speaker Mavis Gragg of HeirShares, and guest speakers Francine Miller (Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law School) and Rusty Rumley (National Agricultural Law Center).
The Center for Agriculture and Food Systems have put together state factsheets examining state laws that are relevant to heirs' property owners, and outlines steps owners can take to resolve property issues before seeing an attorney.
Each factsheet includes how to identify legal heirs of the original land-owning ancestor, state partition law, state laws that permit sale of land due to unpaid property taxes, and other related state laws.
This program works differently than other USDA programs. Rather than USDA providing the loan directly to producers, the loan is provided to intermediary lenders, who then relend the funds to producers like you.
Intermediary lenders (cooperatives, credit unions, nonprofit organizations who have worked with socially disadvantaged, limited resource, or beginning farmers) can apply for loans up to $5 million at 1% interest.
Heirs and lenders will need to repay the loan as directed by the 2018 Farm Bill. Heirs will repay the loan to lenders at the interest rate set by the intermediary lender. Intermediary lenders will repay USDA at the 1% interest rate.
This may also include costs of buying out fractional interests of other heirs to clear the title, which includes closing costs, appraisals, title searches, surveys, preparing documents, mediation, and legal services.
Those applicants with at least 10 years or more of experience with socially disadvantaged farmers that are located in states that have adopted a statute consisting of enactment or adoption of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA) will receive first preference. States who have adopted UPHPA can be found on the Uniform Law Commission webpage.
In partnership with USDA's Farm Service Agency, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund (FSC/LAF) supports heirs by providing outreach and technical assistance on the Heirs' Property Relending Program.
USDA Service Centers are locations where you can connect with Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, or Rural Development employees for your business needs. Enter your state and county below to find your local service center and agency offices. If this locator does not work in your browser, please visit offices.usda.gov.
A novel which turns cultural aggression on its head as the Native American heirs of Christopher Columbus, himself descended from early Mayan explorers, create a fantastic tribal nation.
"If you must read a book on Columbus," declared the Los Angeles Times in its review of The Heirs of Columbus, "this is the one." Gerald Vizenor's novel reclaims the story of Chrisopher Columbus on behalf of Native Americans by declaring the explorer himself to be a descendent of early Mayans and follows the adventures of his modern-day, mixedblood heirs as they create a fantastic tribal nation.
The genetic heirs of Christopher Columbus meet annually at the Stone Tavern at the headwaters of the Mississippi to remember their "stories in the blood" and plan their tribal nation. They are inspired by the late-night talk radio discourses of Stone Columbus, a trickster healer who became rich as the captain of the sovereign bingo barge Santa Maria Casino, anchored in the international waters of the Lake of the Woods. The heirs' plan to reclaim their heritage enrages the government and inspires the tribal nations in a comic tale of mythic proportions.
Vizenor is a mixedblood Chippewa who writes fiction in the trickster mode of Native American tradition, using humor to challenge received ideas and subvert the status quo. In The Heirs of Columbus he "reveals not only how Indians have staved off the tidal wave of assimilation," noted the San Francisco Chronicle, "but also how, through humor and persistence, they sometimes reverse the direction of cultural appropriation and, in the process, transform the alien values imposed on them."
"Vizenor understands the wilder, irrational, half-mad parts of the Discoverer's soul as few people ever have," noted Kirkpatrick Sale in the Nation; "Columbus is appropriated here in an entirely new way, made to be an Indian in service to his Indian descendents." And the Voice Literary Supplement said "Even more rousing than Vizenor's deconstruction of Columbus, though, is his alternative vision of an American identity."
GERALD VIZENOR teaches Native American Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Hotline Healers: An Almost Browne Novel, Landfill Medition: Crossblood Stories, Dead Voices: Natural Agonies in the New World, Interior Landscapes, The Trickster of Liberty, and numerous other books. Shadow Distance: A Gerald Vizenor Reader (1994) offers an overview of his work. Griever: An American Money King in China, his second novel, won the Fiction Collective Prize and the Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award.
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