Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The Heirs’ Property (SERA-49) Multi-State Initiative’s Annual Meeting took place in Louisville, Kentucky, February 3, 2026, from 9 am – 4 pm. Forty people from across multiple states attended the meeting. The event was moderated by Danyelle O’Hara (Center for Heirs’ Property) and Francine Miller (Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at the Vermont Law and Graduate School), and the agenda is posted below. 

Agenda

Welcome and agenda overview

Overview of Heirs Property in Louisville and Kentucky

• Cassandra Johnson Gaither, USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station
• Kevin Slovinsky, LiKEN Knowledge

Kentucky Panel

• Tia Bowman, Executive Administrator, Office of Housing and Community Development, Louisville
• Cindi Sullivan, Executive Director, TreesLouisville
• Casey Townsend, Kentucky State University Extension, Land Tenure Specialist

The Heirs’ Property Landscape: Findings from Heirs’ Property survey conducted by Center for Heirs’ Property, Southern Rural Development Center, Auburn University, and Vermont Law and Graduate School

• Danyelle O’Hara and Alexa Stephens, Center for Heirs’ Property
• Ryan Thomson, Auburn University

National Heirs’ Property Alliance

• Michelle Mapp, consultant

Business Meeting

Ethics Toolkit Pilot

• Grace Johnsen, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
• Sarah Stein, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
• John Green, SRDC/Mississippi State University
• Ryan Thomson, Auburn University

Philanthropic Approaches to Heirs’ Property

• Moderator: Sarah Stein, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
• Meagan Mitchelle, Housing Assistance Counsel
• Ruth Gao, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• Yary Munoz, JP Morgan Chase

Working Group Breakout sessions

• Policy – Francine Miller
• Research – Cassandra Johnson Gaither
• Outreach – Danyelle O’Hara

Closing and next steps

Summary Notes

Overview of Heirs Property in Louisville and Kentucky

Kevin Slovinsky and Cassandra Johnson Gaither provided geographic and social context of Kentucky, along with a window into heirs’ property in the state. This context provided the framing for a panel conversation with Tia Bowman, Cindi Sullivan, and Casey Townsend, who work in Kentucky the fields of housing and community development, urban trees, and land retention, respectively.

Tia and Cindi discussed the challenges of vacant and abandoned property in the City of Louisville, how these properties correlate with areas that have few trees and experience urban heat island effects, and how many of these properties are in heirs’ property. The City of Louisville is developing programs and partnering with legal aid organizations to help property owners address their heirs’ property issues and identify options for moving forward with their property. The nonprofit TreesLouisville is helping communities plant trees to increase canopy cover throughout the city, which not only increases financial and aesthetic value of property, but also decreases the heating impacts of climate change, and has other social values. Casey discussed how heirs’ property is an issue in rural areas throughout the state of Kentucky. Kentucky State University Extension is working with heirs’ property owners to explore options for land use, such as shitake mushrooms, paw paw trees, freshwater shrimp, etc. KYSU is helping landowners with succession planning to avoid heirs’ property.

The Heirs’ Property Landscape Analysis

Danyelle O’Hara and Alexa Stephens, from Center for Heirs’ Property, presented a summary of findings from a survey developed and disseminated in summer 2024 by CHP, SRDC, VGLS, and Auburn University. The survey, designed to understand the growing field of heirs’ property, got roughly 200 responses. The survey sought to understand who is doing what, where, with whom, for how long, and with what resources related to heirs’ property. The concentration of responses to the survey came from the southeast, where the survey developers had most of their contacts. As such, the survey findings aren’t definitive but provide a snapshot to catalyze discussion. Ryan Thomson, from Auburn University, shared maps developed from the survey data, as well as maps that showed the flow of tax bills on property in Alabama, Appalachia, Mississippi, and coastal South Carolina to points north and west, illustrating where absentee owners reside.

Discussion focused on the need for more resources for outreach and education, accessible legal services, and support staff for attorneys. The group also discussed the need for a coordinating body for the plethora of heirs’ property work underway. This was a segue into a presentation by Michelle Mapp, a consultant with the Center for Heirs’ Property, who provided an update on an exploration of the need and feasibility for creating a National Heirs’ Property Alliance, which would provide some of these coordinating services. The Alliance would be a membership organization that includes individuals/community members associated and not associated with organizations. The Alliance would focus on capital, community wealth, technology for practitioners, mass coordination for policy advocacy, and partnership building with other sectors.

Business Meeting

A business meeting was held where SERA-49 leadership asked participants to formally join SERA-49. Casey Townsend from Kentucky State University accepted the nomination to serve as chair elect. Danyelle O’Hara will serve as chair for 2026, Kevin Slovinsky will remain the secretary, and other working group chairs will remain the same (Francine Miller and Heather Way, legal/policy and Cassandra Johnson Gaither, research). At a subsequent meeting, Alexa Stephens was nominated to serve as the outreach chair. Gregory Goines and Thomas Dobbins will continue serving as administrative advisors to SERA-49.

Ethics Toolkit Pilot

At various meetings and conferences, the ethics working group has conducted focus groups and conversations about the ethical challenges of heirs’ property work. The working group uses a bioethics framework requiring autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice. The multiple professions and fields involved in heirs’ property (law, financial services, real estate, social work, community development, land use) have different approaches to ethics, so it’s most feasible to establish an ongoing conversation about ethics rather than a one-time conclusion.

Research, legal, and community outreach small groups explored scenarios provided by the workshop organizers. Notes from each small group were provided to the organizers.

Philanthropic Approaches to Heirs’ Property

What do practitioners need to know about philanthropy?

Moderated by Sarah Stein, panelists Meagan Mitchelle, Ruth Gao, and Yary Munoz discussed the work of their organizations in relation to heirs’ property. Highlights from this dialogue are posted here.

• Philanthropy can take models working on the ground and replicate them in other places.
• What does it look like to reactivate the flow of capital to communities that have been divested from? In the case of heirs’ property, this might be by getting the lending system to see heirs’ property owners as viable clients. Philanthropy can help make this case by funding pilot projects.
• Although some funders will support pilot projects, others prefer not to and would rather invest in established programs with track records.
• Philanthropy is often looking for projects that can become self-funded or leverage long term funding, not just stop when funding stops. It’s hard for funders to invest in something that will not clearly be self-sustaining.
• Funders want to see how many heirs’ property titles were cleared with 1 or 2 years of funding, but that’s not viable. To address heirs’ property, we must make long term changes, so funders have to adjust their time horizon. There’s obviously a tension between wanting immediate impacts over short periods of time and the need for long-term investment to address entrenched issues, like heirs’ property.

Working Group Breakout sessions

The policy, research, and outreach working groups met to begin conversations about 2026 workplans.

The overall Heirs’ Property multi-state group operates a listserv with over 300 members, along with an heirs’ property research subgroup listserv. There were monthly virtual meetings, coupled with periodic working group meetings held on their own schedules. Additionally, members of the group have organized special sessions at professional conferences, including the Professional Agricultural Workers Conference, Rural Sociological Society, and the Southern Rural Sociological Association/Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists. In February 2026, the multi-state group held an in-person annual meeting in Louisville, Kentucky.

Working Groups

Research

A network has been developed to share research questions, methods, publications, and other opportunities to advance both basic and applied research on heirs’ property.

Input was solicited from the Research Working Group members about how they saw the team moving forward and received constructive feedback on better integrating this Working Group with the others making up SERA 49. Also discussed was investigation of funding opportunities for the group. It was decided that the group would hold quarterly meetings and invite people in to report out on their research or possibly other work related to policy or outreach. Speakers during the reporting period included Jerry Pennick (formerly with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund) who shared applied research questions and concerns. He also shared research ideas from the Emergency Land Fund’s 1980 publication that had been articulated but not addressed. Based on this input, going forward the Research Working Group will strive to balance research presentations that are more applied with basic research on the topic. At the beginning of 2026, Belay Alem, a recent University of Florida graduate presented on taxation and dispossession of heirs’ property owners in Alachua County, FL. This exchange was fruitful in that it provided a forum for emerging heirs’ property scholars to present their work in a friendly environment.

Extension and Outreach

Train-the-trainer curricula (basic and advanced) were offered to better equip professionals to provide outreach and education services to individuals, families, and communities concerned about heirs’ property.
The Extension and Outreach Working Group continued to offer train-the-trainer opportunities for people working in the Cooperative Extension System at Land-Grant Institutions along with those at community-based organizations and firms providing legal assistance. During the reporting period four Understanding Heirs’ Property Train-the-Trainer workshops were offered (KY, NC, OK, WV), along with two advanced training workshops (KY, OK). An additional effort was undertaken to advance curriculum insights and approaches in working with Tribal Communities (NM). People trained through these programs are then able to teach from the materials in their states and communities. During a breakout session at the SERA 49 annual meeting, the Extension and Outreach Working Group discussed that the train-the-trainer curriculum has been successful and taken on a life of its own, so now a broader team will work to articulate new priorities and additional areas of work. 

Through the Alabama Heirs’ Property Alliance’s On the Heir podcast, we helped broaden access to heirs’ property information by translating complex legal and research issues into a public-facing educational format. Through the Alliance’s intake and education efforts, we supported 69 families, with 12 completing the full intake and educational process during the reporting period. (Objective 4) 

Legal-Policy

Legal and policy initiatives were shared, studied, and used to convey opportunities for collaborations, innovations and development of ecosystems to provide support for people dealing with heirs’ property.
The Policy Work group includes 85 members and held 5 virtual group calls during this period. We have about 25-30 people attend each meeting, on average. During the virtual meetings, members engaged with attorneys, researchers, and non-profit organizations. Heather K. Way (University of Texas School of Law) and her students presented on home repair access for heirs’ property owners and policy innovations happening in this area. Jill Apter (Boston College Law School) shared her team’s progress on developing a model tenants in common agreement. Kristopher Smith and John Sapora of LISC National and LISC Jacksonville explained how they have built an ecosystem of support in Jacksonville to tackle heirs' property issues and develop policy proposals. Other speakers included the following.

• Chris Garland: National Community Stabilization Trust; 
• Sarah Mancini: National Consumer Law Center;
• Amanda Colon-Smith: Pew; and
• Rachel Gallegos: Community Legal Services of Philadelphia.

 Ethics

A research-informed ethics guidebook for heirs’ property was developed, pilot-tested, and refined. The Ethics Working Group has been developed as a new team since the time of the initial SERA 49 proposal.
The group conducted extensive research on ethical issues confronted in heirs’ property work, especially among legal, outreach and education, and research professionals. During the reporting period, this information was used to develop, pilot test, and refine a guidebook, with presentations and workshops at meetings including those hosted by the Heirs’ Property Practitioners Network, Professional Agricultural Workers, Rural Sociological Society, and the Southern Association of Agricultural Sciences/Southern Rural Sociological Association. An event was also hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and participation in pilot sessions was supported through JPMorganChase, the National Policy Center at Alcorn State University, and the Southern Rural Development Center at Mississippi State University.

Presentations

Andrea Barnes: Initiative on Land, Housing, and Property Rights.

Nicole Cook: ECO City’s Beginning Farmer Training Program; Law Day at the Nanjemoy Community Center

Chris Garland: Urban Institute.

Mavis Gragg:  Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Policy Summit; Urban Institute.

John J. Green: Association of 1890 Research Directors; Association of 1890 Extension Administrators; Association of Southern Region Extension Directors; agInnovation South; Advancing Mississippi.

Brianna Jackson: Initiative on Land, Housing, and Property Rights.

Nancy Lee: Initiative on Land, Housing, and Property Rights.

Karama Neal: Initiative on Land, Housing, and Property Rights; North Carolina Rural Summit; Leading Locally; Pine Bluff Heirs’ Property Convening; Arkansas Heirs’ Property Convening; Untangling a Complex Problem: Heirs’ Property, Estate Planning and Technology; Heirs' Property Investing to Preserve Wealth in New Jersey; Urban Institute.

Michael Neal: Urban Institute.

Danyelle O’Hara: Regenerative Agriculture Foundation; America the Beautiful for All Coalition.

Kevin Slovinsky: Eastern Kentucky Farmers Conference; Appalachian Studies Association; Southern Rural Sociological Association; Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Policy Summit; Mountain State Land Use Summit.

Jill Stein: American Land Title Association; National Association of Realtors

Sarah Stein: Heirs' Property Practitioners Network; Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Policy Summit; Urban Institute; Urban Affairs Association.

Ryan Thomson: Professional Agricultural Workers; Rural Sociological Society; Southern Rural Sociological Association; SERA-49 Annual Meeting, Neighborhood Housing Services Birmingham Event.

Casey Townsend: Southern Rural Sociological Association; Kentucky Small Farmers Conference.

Joshua Walden: Black Farmers’ Coalition; National Urban League; Initiative on Land, Housing, and Property Rights.

Heather Way: Urban Affairs Association

Kara Woods: Heirs' Property Practitioners Network; Professional Agricultural Workers;2025 National Rural Housing Conference; Rural Sociology Society.

Robert Zabawa: Professional Agricultural Workers.

Policy Outreach 

Joshua Walden: Education for South Carolina legislators on South Carolina House Bill 4510, relating to the redemption of real property, to allow for heirs to redeem deceased owners' property in certain circumstances.

Media Engagement

Jennie Stephens: New York Times; Non-Profit Quarterly; Capital B News.

Kristopher Smith: Florida Times-Union.

Ryan Thomson: AL.com. Dadeville Recorder. 

Relevant Teaching 

Robert Zabawa, Tuskegee University: 2 PhD Dissertations

Individual Summaries 

John J. Green
Helped to coordinate/provide support to the heirs’ property multi-state group and he assisted with the Ethics Working Group and its development of a guidebook. Green also collaborated with SERA-49 member Robert Zabawa and managing editor Elizabeth Sweeney to review and edit papers for a new, second special issue of the Journal of Rural Social Sciences focused on heirs’ property. 

Kara Woods
Presented research to inform Cooperative Extension professionals concerning overall facts about heirs’ property and land loss, along with training staff across the U.S., including Charleston, WV (6/7-9/2025), Louisville, KY (9/25-27/2025), Charlotte, NC (9/30-10/1/2025), and Oklahoma City, OK (11/3-5/2025). Policy-relevant research will help policymakers design and implement programs to benefit owners of heirs’ property, especially as it relates to the Farm Bill.

Conner Bailey
Wrote and submitted to the University of North Carolina Press a book-length manuscript on heirs’ property in the southeastern United States. Two positive reviews were produced by external readers for the Press. Several members of SERA-49 also provided constructive critiques. Revisions are being made, and the final draft manuscript will be submitted before May 1, 2026, with an expected publication date in early Spring 2027. The book has benefited greatly from the author's interactions over the years with members of SERA-49 through monthly virtual meetings, from whom he has learned much.  

Ryan Thomson
Presented heirs’ property research and ethics work to national professional audiences through the Professional Agricultural Workers Conference, the Rural Sociological Society, the Southern Rural Sociological Association, and the SERA-49 annual meeting, strengthening multidisciplinary collaboration and knowledge exchange across the Southern Region. A new NIFA-funded project, “Addressing heirs' Property: Bridging the Gap Between Rural Communities and Development Institutions,” expanded resources for applied research to support heirs’ property owners and the institutions that serve them.

Robert Zabawa
Presented research to inform Cooperative Extension professionals concerning overall facts about heirs’ property and land loss, along with training staff across the U.S., including Louisville, KY (September 2025) and Charlotte, NC (October 2025). Also present an introduction to heirs' property to the community organization in Birmingham, AL (April 2025). Policy-relevant research will help policymakers design and implement programs to benefit owners of heirs’ property, especially as it relates to the Farm Bill. Zabawa collaborated with SERA-49 member John Green and managing editor Elizabeth Sweeney to edit a special issue on heirs' property in the Journal of Rural Social Sciences (see John Green above). The same team is collaborating on a second issue on heirs' property in the same journal.

Anthony Coker
Brings over a decade of experience in foreclosure defense and homeownership preservation in Central Brooklyn, working with CAMBA Legal Services and Neighbors Helping Neighbors to assist families navigating foreclosure, deed theft, and "tangled" heirs’ property titles. Coker led the development of the homeownership program at Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation and helped launch the Black Homeownership Project with the Center for New York City Neighborhoods. Currently, he is leading a project funded by the Ponce de Leon Foundation to expand estate planning education by connecting homeowners with free legal services and document generation, utilizing cash incentives to increase program engagement. This work provides policy-relevant data to help design and implement programs that benefit owners of heirs’ property and protect intergenerational wealth in historically marginalized communities.

Overall Impacts

SERA-49 increased regional capacity to address heirs’ property by strengthening collaboration among research, Extension, legal, and community partners across the South and other regions. During the reporting period, the project supported the development and exchange of new knowledge, expanded training and outreach efforts, advanced policy and practice discussions, and refined ethics guidance for professionals working on heirs’ property issues. Collectively, these activities helped policymakers, service providers, and rural residents better understand heirs’ property challenges, their implications for families and communities, and practical strategies for prevention and resolution.

Members of the SERA-49 team continued to work on numerous grants and contracts that were continued from the previous year. These included funding from both federal agencies and philonthropic organizations. Additional efforts leds to new funding as listed here.

Anthony Coker (PI), Neighbors Helping Neighbors. Ponce de Leon Foundation “To support education and outreach to homeowners to access estate planning services with cash incentive.” ($20,000). 2026.

Betsy Taylor (PI), Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network. Players Coalition. ($50,000). 2026.

Ryan Thomson (PI), National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). “Addressing Heirs Property: Bridging the Gap Between Rural Communities and Development Institutions.” ($591,500). 2026.

Publications

Journal Articles

Kim, A., Green, J., Johnson Gaither, C., Dobbs, G. R. 2026. Analyzing Heirs’ Property Prevalence and Spillover Effects in the U.S. Using Spatial Econometric Analysis. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review. Published online 2026:1-21. https://doi.org/10.1017/age.2025.10016 

Mitchell, T. W. 2026. The Heirs’ Property Field: Moving From the Shadows to the Light to Enlightened, Evidence-based Solutions. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1017/age.2025.10021

Extension Publications

Green, J. J., Johnsen, G., Johnson, P., Neal, K., Stein, S., Thomson, R., & Woods, K. 2026. Ethical Engagement in Heirs’ Property Work: A Guide to Inform Dialogue and Practice. Southern Rural Development Center at Mississippi State University & National Policy Research Center at Alcorn State University. https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/srdctopics-heirsproperty/6/ 

Johnson, P., Thomson, R., Rabinowitz, A., & Keown, K. 2024. Heirs Property in Alabama.  Alabama Heirs’ Property Alliance. https://www.aces.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/HE-0852-Heirs-Property__COMPRESSED_091624L-G.pdf 

Additional Publications

Diaz, J. 2025. Heirs’ Property: Investing to Preserve Wealth. Asset Funders Network. https://assetfunders.org/wp-content/uploads/AFN_Investing_Heirs_Property_Report.pdf 

Diaz, J. 2026. Heirs’ Property: Investing to Preserve Wealth in Philadelphia. Asset Funders Network. https://assetfunders.org/wp-content/uploads/AFN_HeirsProperty_Philadelphia_SROI_.pdf 

Diaz, J. 2026. Heirs’ Property: Investing to Preserve Wealth in New Jersey. Asset Funders Network. https://assetfunders.org/wp-content/uploads/AFN_NJ-Heirs-Property-SROI.pdf

Flanigan Sutherland, M., Mancini, S. B., & Stark, A. B. 2026. New Jersey: State-Level Policy Scan of Laws Impacting Heirs’ Property. Asset Funders Network. https://assetfunders.org/wp-content/uploads/AFN_NJ_Heirs-Property-Checklist.pdf  

Moodie, N., Mitchell, M., Sackey, J., George, L. 2026. Understanding Ownership, Unlocking Investment: Clarifying the Legal Process for Title Resolution and Opportunities for Financial Funding for Heirs’ Property. Housing Assistance Council. https://heirscentral.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/EXECUTIVE-SUMMARY-Clarifying-the-Legal-Process-for-Title-Resolution.pdf