Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund Announces Multi-Year USDA Cooperative Heirs Property Relending Program Agreement to Provide Outreach and Technical Assistance

EAST POINT, Ga. - On August 18, 2022 the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land (the Federation) announced its newly signed, multi-year Cooperative Agreement with the USDA to provide outreach and technical assistance to socially disadvantaged Black farmers and farmers of color.

This Cooperative Agreement will allow the Federation to expand outreach and technical assistance on the Heirs Property Relending Program (HPRP) nationwide.

USDA Deputy Secretary, Dr. Jewell Bronaugh, announced Shared Capital Cooperative, Akiptan, Inc., and the Cherokee Nation Economic Development Trust Authority (CNEDTA) have been approved or conditionally approved as intermediary lenders through the Heirs’ Property Relending Program (HPRP). These lenders will help producers and landowners resolve heir's land ownership and succession issues on closed loans.

The Federation is a member-owner of Shared Capital Cooperative and has partnered with Shared Capital Cooperative, named by the USDA as a re-lender under HPRP to service producers in the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina. Contact at Shared Capital to learn more: heirsloans@sharedcapital.coop/612-767-2113.



For more information on the outreach and technical assistance please contact loanfund@federation.coop.

There is currently more than $100 million dollars available for these loans according to a recent USDA press release.

The Federation will be hiring a loan fund manager to help Community Development Funding Institution's develop best practices. The Federation will also hire 7 land retention specialists to assist heirs with loan applications. Additionally, this Cooperative Agreement provides funding that will allow the Federation's Legal Fellows to become full-time staff, providing estate planning and legal referral services to heirs.

Heirs’ property is family land that has been passed down to descendants without a will or deed to prove ownership. Without proof of ownership, it may become difficult for heirs to obtain federal benefits for farms and could force partition sales by third parties. Heirs’ property issues have long been a barrier for many producers and landowners to access USDA programs and services, and this relending program provides access to capital to help heirs find a resolution.

Over 40 years ago, the Emergency Land Fund, which later merged with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives to form the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, conducted the first Congressionally supported research on heirs property. The resulting report, "The Impact of Heir Property on Black Land Tenure in the Southeastern Region of the United States," provided 19 recommendations that would become the basis of heirs property research, policy development and advocacy for years to come. One of those recommendations was incorporated into the Heirs Property Relending Program. 

In the 2018 Farm Bill, Congress authorized the Heirs Property Relending Program culminating decades of the Federation's advocacy for resources to help heirs property landowners afford surveys, appraisals, legal work, and money to consolidate interests in an effort to clear title and make the most productive use of their family land.

Intermediary lenders may make loans to heirs who:

• Are individuals or legal entities with authority to incur the debt and to resolve ownership and succession of a farm owned by multiple owners;
• Are a family member or heir-at-law related by blood or marriage to the previous owner of the property;
• Agree to complete a succession plan.



These are loans (not grants) and will need to be paid back at interest rates set by the lenders.

Heirs may not use loans for any land improvement, development purpose, acquisition or repair of buildings, acquisition of personal property, payment of operating costs, payment of finders’ fees, or similar costs.

The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund is a 55-year-old membership-based cooperative association of black farmers, landowners, and cooperatives.

Our mission is to be a catalyst for the development of self-supporting communities through cooperative economic development, land retention, and advocacy. We envision sustainable rural communities supported by a network of farmers, landowners, and cooperatives based on local control and ownership. 

FSC/LAF assists limited resource farmers, landowners, and cooperatives across the Southern region with business planning, debt restructuring, marketing expertise, and a whole range of other services to ensure the retention of black-owned land and cooperatives as a tool for social and economic justice.