More Philadelphians are keeping their family homes thanks to increased support for untangling titles and estate planning

Leslie Davis thought of her nana’s house as her own.

Davis, 56, had grown up there. More than two decades ago, she moved from an apartment back to the North Philadelphia house to take care of her grandmother in her last years.

Davis continued living in the home after her grandmother died, paying the bills and saving up to repair the roof.

But the house wasn’t legally hers. The deed was still in Davis’ nana’s name, and the family matriarch didn’t have a will.

Because Davis didn’t own the house, she couldn’t apply for programs to help make repairs or pay bills. She couldn’t get homeowners insurance.

She had a tangled title — a term that describes unclear legal ownership of a property. Now, thanks to the free services of the legal-aid organization Philadelphia VIP and one of its volunteer attorneys, she owns the home and has a will, which will make inheriting the property easier for her niece.

“She won’t have to go through all this,” Davis said.

» READ MORE: Tangled titles in Philly threaten more than $1.1 billion in generational wealth

Organizations such as Philadelphia VIP across the city have been focusing more attention — and funds — to prevent tangled titles from happening as well as helping residents fix the ones that exist.

More than 10,400 homes in Philadelphia have unclear legal ownership, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Residents in these properties — and more, since that is a conservative estimate — are vulnerable to scammers who steal deeds, and they can’t use their home’s equity, sell their homes, or take advantage of a host of homeowner assistance programs.

Philadelphians risk losing more than $1.1 billion in generational wealth because of tangled titles. And the loss of homes threatens the stability of both families and neighborhoods.

Most tangled titles occur when a homeowner dies and the deed for a property does not transfer to a new owner. If the person died without a will that says who should inherit the property, fixing the problem is more complicated.

Kenneth Bigos, executive director of the Philadelphia-based housing-counseling agency Affordable Housing Centers of Pennsylvania, said if perceptions that estate planning is a taboo subject don’t change, “we’re not gonna be able to put a dent in that record amount of tangled titles.”

Kelly J. Gastley, managing attorney at Philadelphia VIP, which administers the city-financed Tangled Title Fund, said that five years ago, estate planning didn’t seem to be on the radar of many housing counselors.

But now she hears them talking to clients about it, which “gives me a lot of encouragement that we’re really moving in the right direction on this issue.”

The work that nonprofits and the city are doing, she said, will “empower a lot of our families in this city to hold onto their homes and pass them on.”

» READ MORE: Philly is giving $7.6M to legal aid agencies to clear residents’ tangled titles

The Affordable Housing Centers of Pennsylvania received a $150,000, two-year grant from Wells Fargo last August to launch an estate-planning program in partnership with the legal-aid nonprofit Community Legal Services of Philadelphia.

Since last September, they have held about two dozen free wills clinics, virtually and in person, and offer free follow up appointments with legal advocates so residents who meet certain income requirements can create wills.

A virtual wills workshop happens every third Wednesday of the month.

A comprehensive home preservation resource event is scheduled for Oct. 14 at East Mount Airy’s Dare to Imagine Church at 6610 Anderson St.

Homeowners can talk to experts and get connected to resources about tangled titles, estate planning, real estate taxes, and more.

Many residents don’t know they don’t have legal ownership of the home they live in until a problem pops up.

Register of Wills Tracey Gordon has made spreading the word about tangled titles a priority for her office. And City Council passed legislation in late 2021 requiring funeral service providers to share information with clients about how to prevent getting trapped by a tangled title.

An announcement last summer that the city would give $7.6 million to legal-aid agencies to fix tangled titles built on existing momentum. Agencies have been able to hire more people and help more residents fix or prevent tangled titles.

The outreach is working, said Rachel Gallegos, staff attorney in the home ownership and consumer rights unit at Community Legal Services.

“We have clients coming in in droves,” Gallegos said.

Gastley said Philadelphia VIP has seen more people saying, “Hey, I have this tangled title and I heard it’s a problem I should be addressing now and not waiting.”

» READ MORE: Unclear ownership impedes upkeep and sale of houses in Philly. The city is working on a solution.

The longer that properties sit with muddled ownership without going through required legal processes, the more complicated cases become. Heirs multiply and scatter and can claim more pieces of properties.

And tangled titles take time to resolve. Davis’ took almost a year, and more complicated cases can take much longer.

Last fiscal year, the Tangled Title Fund, which helps pay costs associated with clearing titles, received 202 new applications, Gastley said. That’s double the volume of applications received the previous year.

The money spent fixing tangled titles more than doubled to $359,000. And it’s not that costs have gone up, she said, “it’s that so many more folks are actually being assisted now.”

» READ MORE: Philadelphia funeral homes will begin educating survivors about tangled property titles

“We are chipping away at what I’ll call a backlog of all those tangled title issues that have been sitting out there unresolved for years,” Gastley said. “We are meaningfully putting a dent in the problem.”

Tangled titles are one of the biggest issues older Philadelphians face, said Leah Finlayson, legal director at Philadelphia-based SeniorLAW Center, which was able to hire another attorney to help with that work because of increased city funding.

The organization is grateful for the money, she said, but, “if I had a lot more staff, we could certainly handle more cases.” Preventing foreclosures is another priority for SeniorLAW Center, and the same team works on tangled titles.

» READ MORE: Stealing from the dead: Thieves and forgers are taking houses from the deceased in 'hot' neighborhoods

Both are about protecting many families’ largest asset.

Bigos said that when Affordable Housing Centers of Pennsylvania holds home buyer classes, he asks about people’s primary motivation for purchasing.

“Overwhelmingly,” he said, “they say, ‘I want to leave something behind for my children.’ ”