I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1607
To assist applicants for community development block grant recovery assist-
ance not having traditionally accepted forms of documentation of owner-
ship of property to prove such ownership, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY26, 2025
Mrs. F
LETCHER(for herself, Mr. CLEAVER, Ms. WILLIAMSof Georgia, Mr.
T
HOMPSONof Mississippi, Ms. NORTON, Mr. SOTO, Ms. TLAIB, Mrs.
B
EATTY, and Mr. VEASEY) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Financial Services
A BILL
To assist applicants for community development block grant
recovery assistance not having traditionally accepted
forms of documentation of ownership of property to
prove such ownership, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Heirs Empowerment 4
and Inheritance Rights Act of 2025’’ or the ‘‘HEIR Act 5
of 2025’’. 6
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•HR 1607 IH
SEC. 2. CDBG-DISASTER RECOVERY AND CDBG-MITIGATION 1
PROGRAMS. 2
(a) D
OCUMENTATION OF PROPERTYOWNERSHIP.— 3
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary of Housing 4
and Urban Development shall amend the regulations 5
at part 570 of title 24, Code of Federal Regulations, 6
to ensure that in providing assistance for the Com-7
munity Development Block Grant program for Dis-8
aster Recovery (CDBG–DR) and the Community 9
Development Block Grant program for Mitigation 10
(CDBG–MIT), in connection with a Presidentially 11
declared disaster, in a case in which a homeowner is 12
required to demonstrate ownership of a property 13
heir property owners and any other owners not hav-14
ing traditionally accepted forms of documentation of 15
ownership of property are provided resources and 16
options for proving ownership for purposes of receiv-17
ing assistance under such Disaster Recovery and 18
Mitigation programs. 19
(2) A
CCEPTABLE DOCUMENTATION .—Accept-20
able documentation for purposes paragraph (1) shall 21
include— 22
(A) a signed affidavit of ownership form 23
developed pursuant to subsection (b); or 24
(B) letters from local public or private 25
schools, Federal or State benefit providers, and 26
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•HR 1607 IH
social service organizations, including commu-1
nity assistance programs and nonprofit organi-2
zations. 3
(3) D
EFINITION.—For purposes of this sub-4
section, the term ‘‘heir property’’ means residential 5
property for which title passed by operation of law 6
through intestacy and is held by two or more heirs 7
as tenants in common. 8
(b) A
FFIDAVIT OFOWNERSHIP.— 9
(1) D
EVELOPMENT AND USE .—The Secretary 10
of Housing and Urban Development shall amend the 11
regulations at part 570 of title 24, Code of Federal 12
Regulations, to provide for the use of a standardized 13
affidavit of ownership form, to be developed by the 14
Secretary, by grantees of the Community Develop-15
ment Block Grant program for Disaster Recovery 16
(CDBG–DR) and the Community Development 17
Block Grant program for Mitigation (CDBG–MIT) 18
in coordination with appropriate authorities of the 19
applicable jurisdiction. Each grantee shall ensure 20
that, at the time of application for housing repair 21
and reconstruction assistance or mitigation assist-22
ance under such programs— 23
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•HR 1607 IH
(A) each applicant is informed of the exist-1
ence of the affidavit of ownership and provided 2
a copy at the time of application; and 3
(B) copies of the form in English, Spanish, 4
and any other locally predominant languages of 5
the Presidentially-declared disaster area are ac-6
cessible to the applicant. 7
(2) P
ROHIBITION.—A grantee may not require 8
that the signed affidavit of ownership form of an ap-9
plicant be notarized. 10
(c) E
XEMPTION.—An affidavit of ownership form 11
shall be exempt from any public comment periods or publi-12
cation notices under part 570 of title 24, Code of Federal 13
Regulations. 14
Æ
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