Homestead Preservation Center gets $1M grant
Few doubt that the near West Side is the newest frontier in the city’s gentrification movement.
It’s the last part of town undergoing a wave of buying and reselling. Predators are displacing the poorest, most vulnerable and those whose homes are all they have in the way of an asset.
It’s a crisis.
The Mexican American Unity Council figured that out a long time ago as people shared their stories.
They needed help clearing a house title after a father died without a will, leaving families — widows especially — in danger of losing their property. Imagine their worry. Some simply didn’t know how to go about challenging a property appraisal to lower their taxes. Some were behind on tax payments, confused about their options and unaware that payment plans and homestead exemptions exist.
They’re homeowners facing gentrification in the midst of the housing affordability crunch.
Still others needed advice on becoming first-time homebuyers.
Holding on to property has become even harder as developers and individual speculators see the profit in them, especially as non-west Siders see beyond the area’s stereotypes and misconceptions to the beauty of an important historic, cultural zone — despite its generational poverty.
The Chicano civil rights leaders who founded MAUC were on the front lines of a social justice struggle that included political, educational, individual and collective economic growth.
Every step toward all of that counts.
Last Saturday, MAUC received word of a boost from a $1.03 million federal community project grant made possible by the office of U.S. Rep. Greg Casar of Austin. He represents Texas’ 35th District, which takes in parts of downtown and the West Side.
That’s an issue, too, but one for another time.
It was gratifying to hear his office had good news for various nonprofit agencies, including MAUC, which plans to use the money to expand its Homestead Preservation Center at its West Commerce headquarters. It wants to transform the center into a one-stop shop for vulnerable homeowners, most often the elderly, retired and disabled. Its clientele may be predominately Mexican Americans, but people of other backgrounds and other parts of town can get help there, too.
Experts say one of the most widespread problems is “fractionalized ownership.” It happens when homeowners die without wills or other documents that clearly pass title to heirs.
Crystal Requejo, chief operating officer of MAUC programs and development, said West Siders face “a stigma” around discussions of property and death.
When relatives ask an older homeowner to get a will, they might feel threatened, vulnerable, even insulted.
“They say, ‘ Ay, ya queries que muera,’ ” Requejo said. “You want me to die already.”
They may view such requests as an omen, or even an ill wish. Some don’t want to decide who’ll inherit property, fearing what my mom called family “ disgustos,” disagreements.
Such apprehensions haunt some families, leaving critical legal details left undone in what’s an eventuality for all of us. An “informal inheritance” doesn’t pass legal muster. Informal owners can’t qualify for home improvement loans without a property title.
The other problem for 78207 residents, often labeled the poorest ZIP code in the region, is that many can’t afford lawyers to get wills done and assist in the most complicated property cases.
MAUC has stepped up with free services for those who most need it.
State law gives homeowners several ways to transfer such assets, including a Transfer on Death Deed that doesn’t require a lawyer to draft; an affidavit of heirship; or a gift or warranty deed.
Among the services MAUC offers are workshops on home rehabilitation counseling, estate planning and understanding credit.
This week, MAUC thanked Casar for his “big hearted” support.
Altogether, Casar secured $15 million in “earmarks” for federal appropriations funding that went to a variety of worthy projects in fiscal year 2024.Congress describes Community Project Funding as “an improved version of the ‘earmarks’ funding” Congress used in the past.
It’s “direct funding to projects that make a real difference in the lives of constituents, especially the most vulnerable,” his office said.
The funding will go to building out the center, including additional construction, rehabilitation and redesign of the existing space at MAUC’S Homestead Preservation Center.
It’s a proactive move to make a one-stop shop a reality.
Most of all, the center will collect data from residents themselves about those involved in “predatory market activity, including housing-related fraud, discrimination and unscrupulous business practices by real estate lenders and contractors.”
That’s good news. So is building stronger ties to other nonprofit agencies focused on the affordable housing crisis.