The Initiative’s Legislative and Policy Lab works to advance concrete policy proposals and law reform solutions that address land, housing, and community development challenges, in particular those that disproportionately impact disadvantaged communities. The Initiative partners with local, state, regional, and national stakeholders to develop impactful legal reform proposals; supports coalitional advocacy; provides legal and policy analysis; and designs and disseminates policy proposals that work to strengthen property rights, intergenerational asset building, and housing and land security.
A centerpiece of the Lab’s activity is to address a wide range of issues in the heirs’ property field, which Professor Mitchell has played a major role in helping to build over the course of the past three decades and a field for which he is considered the preeminent national thought leader. The Lab’s activity in this space includes providing support to various stakeholders interested in the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), a model state statute for which Professor Mitchell served as the principal drafter. The UPHPA has been adopted by 25 states and other jurisdictions – states with two-thirds of the U.S. population – with several other states considering it at this time, making it one of the most successful uniform acts the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) has promulgated in the past 30 years. Often in collaboration with other organizations, the Lab also works to advance other policy solutions, complementary to the UPHPA, to remedy economic vulnerability and property loss among heirs’ property owners.
In addition to its advocacy on heirs’ property issues, the Lab engages in a growing scope of work on other reforms to advance affordable and fair housing for homeowners and renters, prevent land loss among disadvantaged communities, and support intergenerational asset building. The Lab is in the process of scaling up its policy portfolio with the hires of its first Policy Director, Senior Policy Advisor, and Policy Associate, and the development of a formal policy agenda encompassing our work across a range of issues.