DRAFT SOW_1155082.pdf

US Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Statement of Work

USDA FS, Southern Research Station

Forestry Sciences Lab – RWU 4952

320 E Green Street

Athens, GA 30602

Assessment of Title Complexity Associated with Informally Owned Real Property

May 16, 2025

Contents Project General Information

1.0 Scope of Work

2.0 Background

3.0 Technical Requirements /Tasks

4.0 Government Furnished

5.0 Deliverables / Schedule. requirement………………………………………………………………………………………….5

6.0 Travel

7.0 Contractor’s Key Personnel

8.0 Security Requirements

9.0 Data Rights

10.0 Section 508 – Electronic and Information Technology Standards

Project Assessment of Title Complexity Associated with Informally Owned Real Property

General Information

1.0 Scope of Work

This contract supports research examining the distribution of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Development Block Grants for Disaster Relief (CDBG-DR) to communities and ultimately to real property owners. We conjecture that real property owners with informal homeownership may be constrained in their ability to access CDBG- DR funding because they cannot demonstrate ownership in their real property (i.e., their homes). This severely curtails these owners’ ability to recover financially following traumatic, weather-related events or other natural disasters.

This work will examine informal property ownership in four cities impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton in Fall 2024--Asheville, NC; Tampa, FL; Greenville, SC, and Atlanta, GA to: 1) assess the state of informal property ownership in these cities and 2) categorize the various levels or types of informality, as informal ownership exists along a continuum from milder to more extreme forms and 3) determine which kinds and costs of legal services would be required to formalize property titles for the different types of informally held property, and 4) identify those properties mostly likely to be eligible for CDBG-DR funding tied to Public Law 118-158.

2.0 Background

Real estate owners experience damage to their real property following environmental perturbations, including felled trees. To recover and rebuild from these events, most of these property owners will need financial assistance from either insurance or public sources, i.e., federal, state, or local governments. Both private and public providers require proof of undisputed, real property ownership in the form of a deed evidencing their ownership. However, real property owners who own their properties informally, that is, in situations when an owner’s name does not on the property title or other bona fide instrument evidencing ownership (because the owner received the property via default means of interstate succession) are not typically eligible to receive CDBG-DR funding.

For these informal owners of real estate to prove ownership, they typically need a full title examination by real property attorneys to confirm who the present owners of the property are. This review formalizes or regularizes informal property titles, which involves creating a new title or deed that explicitly lists current owners. Formal titles are essential for participation in capitalistic markets (e.g., credit, real estate, resource extraction) because this conversion conveys to creditors that both property owners and the associated physical property can be traced and verified. This verification plays a crucial role in creditors’ determination of whether they will extend credit to property owners. This assurance also better positions property owners to access government funding like CDBG-DR grants, again a key factor in post-disaster recovery. However, the formalization process takes on average two to three years and costs $5,000–$8,000. At the community level, cities and rural areas with high concentrations of informal property (relative to that town or city) can determine the relative success or failure of recovery efforts post-disaster. Thus, eliminating or reducing constraints faced by individual property owners in their attempt to access public funding can help to stabilize communities over the longer term.

Contractor Requirements

3.0 Technical Requirements /Tasks

For four cities impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton (Asheville, NC; Tampa, FL; and Greenville, SC; Atlanta, GA,) in Fall 2024, the contractor will quantify the number of informally held real properties, identify any geospatial concentrations of such properties in these cities, and assess whether concentrations can be distinguished by the type of informality associated with these properties, that is, the “title health.” The contractor will also examine property titles for three properties in each city to demonstrate how quickly sufficient title work can be completed to develop a legal opinion and promulgate the documentation needed for participating in any disaster recovery program. This analysis is part of a larger disaster related research project the Southern Research Station (SRS-4952) proposes to conduct on the urban wood economy in each of the aforenamed cities.

Specifically, the contractor will perform the following tasks:

3.1 Informal property Identification and Mapping

● Work interactively with SRS-4952 Forest Service research scientist to develop a database identifying informal property parcels in at least three of the four cities.

● Use data sources, including parcel-level tax and ownership records to determine likely informal property.

● This determination will exclude multi-unit developments (e.g. condominiums) and properties with centralized disaster management (e.g. HOAs).

3.2 Title Complexity Stratification

Informal properties will be stratified in the following manner--

● Severe: Properties with 5–7 generations of ownership within the family or properties owned by very large families, which often require extensive family tree development and complex title (legal) work.

● Moderate: Properties with 3–4 generations of ownership within the family, requiring moderate effort to identify co-owners and clarify ownership.

● Low: Properties that have been recently inherited, typically involving 2–3 generations of ownership, and are more straightforward to document and resolve.

3.3 Visual Analysis and Mapping

● Produce geospatial heat maps showing concentrations of informal property in each city.

● Generate a separate visualization highlighting geographic clusters by estimated title complexity.

3.4 Title Work Demonstration

● Select three representative informal property parcels per city (one per complexity category) and complete sample title work:

• Construct family trees

• Conduct title research

• Draft legal memos or opinions suitable for disaster recovery documentation

• Estimate time and cost required for each level of complexity

3.5 Research Contribution

• Meet regularly (timing to be determined) with US Forest Service Principal Investigator (PI) and other members of the broader research team.

• Provide written content and data visualizations for the USFS research paper.

• Contribute findings on informal property density, legal barriers, and the potential for integrating timely title resolution into disaster preparedness strategies.

4.0 Government Furnished

N/A

5.0 Deliverables / Schedule. Timely submission of deliverables is essential to successfully completing this requirement.

Please see the table below.

*Customary progress payments will be used per FAR 32.501-1. Invoicing may occur no more than monthly. % in above table represents the percentage of total contract value. Contact total % at each milestone will not be exceeded without acceptance of all associated deliverables.

6.0 Travel

The contractor will travel to relevant meetings and conferences to deliver project results.

7.0 Contractor’s Key Personnel

Project Administrator

The Project Administrator shall be responsible for overseeing the key components of the analysis, including developing a plan of work for the data analyst estimate informal property and its concentration in the four cities. The administrator will also use his or her expertise to perform title work and determine the degree of informality associated with identified properties.

Minimum Qualifications

1. Law degree from an accredited law school

2. Minimum 5 years’ experience as a real property attorney

3. Minimum 5 years title clearing experience

4. Expertise in Geographic Information Systems and statistical analyses broadly

5. Prior work with and knowledge of natural resource management concepts and practices

8.0 Security Requirements

All data collected shall be kept strictly confidential and made available only to the research team. No reporting, of manuscripts, or presentations shall be made without the consent of the research team.

9.0 Data Rights

The data shall be owned by the USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station.

10.0 Section 508 – Electronic and Information Technology Standards N/A

Delivery date Milestones & Deliverables Percent of project cost*

Within 6 months of project start

Informal Property Database for three or more cities 20%

Within 6 months of project start

Title Complexity Stratification 20%

Within 8 months of start

Heat Maps (General + Complexity-based) 15%

Within 12 months of start

Title Work Case Studies (12 total) 10%

As requested, finalized by project end

Written Contribution to USDA Forest Service Final Report and or research paper

10%

Final invoicing upon acceptance of final deliverable and full contract completion

15%