For thousands of Detroit families, home is more than four walls—it’s generational wealth, family history, and a foundation for the future. But a hidden crisis threatens that legacy. A 2024 Detroit Future City study uncovered a startling reality: approximately 5,500 families are living in “heirs’ properties”—homes passed down through generations without legal transfer of ownership—representing about $270 million in household wealth at risk.

When a property owner dies without a will or proper estate planning, their home can become legally tangled, leaving family members unable to access tax assistance, home repair programs, or homeowners insurance. Nearly 500 of these properties faced immediate tax foreclosure risk, threatening to erase decades of family wealth in a single stroke.

That’s why Gilbert Family Foundation invested $1.5 million over two years to partner with Lakeshore Legal Aid and Michigan Legal Services, providing free legal representation for probate court proceedings. Working alongside the City of Detroit’s $668,000 ARPA-funded initiative with Neighborhood Legal Services, we’re ensuring families can legally claim what’s rightfully theirs.

“This investment enables us to both provide heirs with beneficial homeowner resources while also helping to stabilize and strengthen the vitality of the neighborhoods that these families have lived for decades,” said Paris Wilson, Sr. Program Manager, Housing Stability. “Keeping families in their homes through probate and estate planning stops the threat of housing displacement and preserves neighborhood culture, history, and housing quality.”

 

Real Stories, Real Impact

The impact is already transforming lives. Take Gerald*, who faced losing the home he’d shared with his partner Rose for 40 years. Because they never married, he wasn’t legally her heir when she passed without a will. Lakeshore Legal Aid helped him navigate probate and work with their adult son to transfer ownership, saving his home from foreclosure.

Or consider Mary*, a 71-year-old woman with severe communication barriers who couldn’t navigate the legal system alone after her daughter’s death in 2018. Michigan Legal Services fully represented her in court, transferred the home to her name, and helped her access essential services—preserving the one thing that kept her connected to her late daughter.

Then there’s Ruby*, who’s lived in her home since age 10—a house her father built in 1965 as part of Detroit’s residential desegregation during the Civil Rights Movement. The deed was still in her father’s name from 1991. Our partners had to probate both her parents’ estates, using funding from Gilbert Family Foundation to cover court costs. Now she can access home repair programs and preserve a powerful symbol of her father’s activism.

These stories represent just the beginning. Families who’ve called Detroit home for generations deserve the security of legal ownership. We also recently worked with Rocket Community Fund to coordinate a skilled volunteer opportunity for Rocket Legal team members to help Detroiters going through the probate process – yet another way we are “tying threads” to help more residents stay in their homes.  Through strategic partnerships and dedicated legal support, we’re preventing foreclosures, but we’re doing so much more than that: investments like this protect legacies, build wealth, and ensure that Detroit’s long-time residents can pass their homes to the next generation.

Residents facing heirs’ property challenges can call the Detroit Housing Resource Help Line at 866-313-2520.

*All residents’ names referenced are pseudonyms to protect their privacy.