New Catapult program helps families obtain titles to their homes

Irene Clark, an attorney who has worked to help transfer titles to the survivors of deceased homeowners, knows how difficult and costly that transfer of generational wealth can be.

But she also knows how costly it can be not to have a clear title to a home when banks won’t lend money for repairs or low-income families can’t obtain grants to repair what is not legally theirs.

Now Catapult, a nonprofit in East Liberty focused on helping disenfranchised communities, has started a program to help families obtain clear titles to their homes.

The Clinic for Legal Equity and Repairs, or CLEAR, helps families navigate legal obstacles and even provides financial assistance to pay for obtaining a clean title on a home. There is also money for home repairs. 

Most estate lawyers, Clark said, won’t even start helping a family without a retainer of $4,000.

Catapult’s work was recognized on Tuesday, March 19, with a $1 million grant from billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott’s charitable organization Yield Giving. (The Hazelwood Initiative and the Hugh Lane Wellness Foundation each got a $2 million grant).

For most families, the home is their biggest investment that is passed from one generation to the next.

But there are the costs associated with death. Beyond the burial expenses, families pay for death certificates, at $20 each, to present to utilities and banks. If they try to transfer the title, the filing fee at the Allegheny County Recorder of Deeds is $181.75, an amount Clark knows by heart. The state will tax the inheritance at 4.5%, even if there isn’t any savings to pay it.

Clark had one client, who was living on Social Security with a parent when his parent died. The house, valued at $30,000, was in the parent’s name without any debt, such as a mortgage or home equity loan. To inherit the house, the son had to pay $1,350 to the state in taxes but did not have the savings to pay the amount in one payment, the way the Department of Revenue demands it be paid. So the son continued to live in the house but did not get the title.

Under the CLEAR program, Clark said, he now can be provided with the legal and financial help to move the title into his name.

Additionally, she said, some properties are subject to a claim by Medicare for nursing care after the property owner dies. There are ways to write the title before the property owner receives care, and hardship waivers for family members who lived in the home for two years and helped care for the property owner before death. However, in some instances, the title cannot be changed without paying Medicare, either through the sale of the house or from the heirs who want to retain the house.

One indication of the need for the CLEAR program was that within a week of announcing it had opened, 21 people signed up, said Gabrielle DeMarchi, Catapult’s director of equity protection.

A secondary benefit of CLEAR is that it stabilizes neighborhoods by saving homes from abandonment.

“What we see is people are walking away from these properties because they need repairs,” DeMarchi said. Those abandoned properties then create neighborhood blight.

“People typically are reaching out for titles because they need home repairs,” DeMarchi said. “There are programs that provide money for home repairs, but you have to have a clear title.”

She pointed out that without a clear title, families also cannot purchase insurance for the home, obtain a property tax abatement or sell the property.

DeMarchi, who is a social worker by training, worked in a similar program at Operation Better Block in Homewood. The Catapult program, however, is open to all of Allegheny County, but prioritizes people over 62, caregivers of children 18 and younger and veterans or widows of veterans. The program is also focused on disadvantaged communities, such as the city neighborhoods of Homewood, Larimer and the Central North Side, and communities such as Braddock and McKeesport.

The title issue, she said, “is definitely a widespread situation in the county.”

And for those whom the program can’t help, DeMarchi said, she will find them help, such as Neighborhood Legal Services, which also does the same sort of work.

“Still fill out the application, still call. We’ll talk to you and figure something out,” she said.