Disaster Recovery Housing Coalition (DHRC) member Legal Aid of North Carolina won a major victory for heirs’ property owners on April 24 when the group reached a successful settlement in a housing discrimination complaint that will reduce barriers preventing heirs’ property owners from accessing critical disaster recovery aid.
“Heirs’ property” is family land inherited without a will or traditional documentation of ownership. Black, Latino, and Indigenous households, as well as low-income people and members of other marginalized groups, are disproportionately heirs’ property owners. The complaint was made against the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency (NCORR) after a disaster survivor’s application to the ReBuild NC Homeowner Recovery Program was rejected due to lack of proof of ownership. Legal Aid NC filed the complaint with HUD in February 2023, arguing that when applied to owners of heirs’ properties, NCORR’s proof of ownership requirements resulted in the denial of equal housing opportunities to Black/African American homeowners seeking disaster recovery assistance funds in violation of the federal “Fair Housing Act.”
As a result of the settlement, NCORR has agreed to three major changes. First, NCORR will adopt a new proof of ownership policy in which owners of heirs’ property will need only to agree that they have or will notify any party that may have an ownership interest in the property about their participation in the ReBuild program. Second, it will provide written notice of the new policy to the approximately 74 applicants previously rejected from the ReBuild program due to previous proof of ownership requirements and allow them to submit appeals for reentry into the program. Finally, it has committed to training all NCORR staff on the requirements of the new policy.
“Legal Aid of North Carolina is proud to announce this resolution, which reduces unnecessary barriers for owners in heirs’ properties to access crucial disaster relief funding, while also preserving the existing homeownership structure and keeping these properties in the family,” said A.D. Skaff, supervising attorney with Legal Aid of North Carolina’s Fair Housing Project. “We hope that these revised policies can serve as a model for other disaster relief programs in North Carolina and CDBG-DR funded programs across the country.”
Read the settlement here.