By Ariama C. Long
The city and state are attempting to further protect and maintain homeownership amid the current housing crisis by enacting stricter penalties related to deed fraud, a pervasive issue in the city that disproportionately affects seniors in Black and Brown communities.
Newly elected Assemblymember Landon Dais, who won a seat in office this February thanks to a special election, was eager to get to Albany and convince his colleagues to immediately prioritize the housing crisis, he said. He sponsored Bill A09763 in his first session, with the help of Attorney General (AG) Letitia James, to criminalize deed theft, a practice of taking the title to someone’s home without their knowledge, often through forgery or faking a homeowner’s signature on a deed. Gov. Kathy Hochul included the new measure in the state’s 2025 enacted budget.
By his count, Dais said that there are at least 18 suspected cases of deed fraud in the 77th District in the Bronx, but that it has also been an issue in the Harlem, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Bushwick neighborhoods.
“These con artists [and] low-morale people were targeting elderly people of color,” Dais said. “It was clear that I had to do something. This will help ensure that seniors who have spent their life building equity in their homes won’t have some con artist take it from them without some sort of criminal penalty.”
Seniors in predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods have been at the whims of scammers who commit deed theft for years. Until recently, suspected cases were more of a civil matter that gets dragged out in housing courts as a contract issue, said Dais.
That’s changing.
Last year, Hochul signed an anti-deed theft bill (S.6577/A.6656), which reinforced the ability of the AG’s office to investigate deed theft cases, pause deed-related evictions, and dispute related proceedings, while expanding the scope of fraudulent sale crimes that local district attorneys can prosecute. According to the governor’s office, that law also includes language that declares a deed transfer fraudulent in civil disputes if a party has a prior conviction for deed theft or property fraud, challenges buyers or lenders who might have been aware of the theft, and expanded the State’s Home Equity Theft Prevention Act for the sale of homes in foreclosure or default.
Another insidious housing issue that disproportionately affects elderly Black and Brown homeowners in the city is a lack of real estate planning when it comes to forming a will, putting property in a trust for relatives, or adhering to the state’s five-year Medicaid lookback period when the need arises for nursing care.
The latter refers to the five years before a person applies for Medicaid nursing home care, assisted living, adult foster care, or in-home care: They can’t qualify for Medicaid if they own assets and have a higher income, and will be fined and penalized if those assets were given away or transferred in that timeframe. A homeowner could end up with a lien on their home when trying to get nursing care or be denied care for several months as a penalty, said Valerie Bogart of the New York Legal Assistance Group.
“Estate planning is a big thing,” Dais said. “There’s no question we also need to do that around Medicaid trusts. The problem is timing, especially in African-American culture—dealing with wills and all that is problematic.”
Joshua Brown, a licensed Black real estate broker and founder of Pushing Forward Realty, holds seminars with community board members in Brooklyn to educate residents about the dangers of identity and deed theft, as well as the importance of real estate planning.
“If you have a senior that’s elderly, the family needs to establish estate planning to shield that asset in the event that he/she needs long-term health insurance, which will bleed your money dry, or if they need Medicaid,” Brown said. “In our community, I think we’re so scared to talk about death and people dying, but we have to map it out. Estate planning is responsible, necessary, and mature, and saves a whole lot of heartache for the people that’s left.”
Brown says he recommends that every Black homeowner have a healthcare proxy and a living trust, no matter their age, but recognizes that many don’t have access to a lawyer to facilitate these, or that their property may have debts on it that make it ineligible for the process.
To report deed theft or other scams call the New York State Attorney General Office at 1-800-771-7755 or file a deed theft complaint online. For free housing counseling and legal assistance, call the Homeowner Protection Program (HOPP) at 1-855-466-3456 or go to homeownerhelpny.org.
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member who writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
This post was originally published on New York Amsterdam News.