Forever Forward

Heirs Property: Tackling a Silent Barrier to Home Ownership

The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida Season 2 Episode 7

Over the past nine years, The Community Foundation has made over $1.6 million in grants to foster inclusive prosperity across Jacksonville as part of our key leadership initiative, Supporting Neighborhoods.  

One of the stand-out areas of investment has been a body of work we call “heirs property,” led by local nonprofit partners including the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). It’s a critical component for building wealth in underserved neighborhoods, and The Community Foundation has made multiple grants to support it in Duval County and now in Nassau County.  

The data is impressive: In the past four years, LISC has invested more than $1 million in resolving heirs property issues, and the work has successfully preserved or stabilized more than $29 million in real estate.  

Our guests from LISC – Kristopher Smith, Community Development Program Officer, and John Sapora, Housing Resiliency Program Officer, join James Coggin, TCF Senior Director of Grantmaking and Impact Investing, to tell us more about this work. 

Learn more and sign up for email updates at jaxcf.org