{"id":369131,"date":"2025-11-10T12:16:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T12:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/369131\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T12:16:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T12:16:16","slug":"kleberg-resident-wins-homestead-exemptions-saving-her-childhood-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/369131\/","title":{"rendered":"Kleberg resident wins homestead exemptions, saving her childhood home"},"content":{"rendered":"

For nearly a decade, Yvonne Blackstock didn\u2019t realize she was paying thousands of dollars in property taxes she didn\u2019t owe<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Then, she fell behind on her property tax payments. Dallas Code Enforcement cited her for peeling paint and broken siding. Her father, battling dementia, stopped paying the tax bill. The foreclosure warnings would later arrive for the 100-year-old home. <\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Mobile<\/p>\n

\u201cI was scared I was going to lose the only home I\u2019ve ever known,\u201d Blackstock said.<\/p>\n

Breaking News<\/p>\n

Get the latest breaking news from North Texas and beyond.<\/p>\n

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As her property taxes mounted, Blackstock was on the verge of being forced out of her home.<\/p>\n

She was one of hundreds of Dallas homeowners who have fallen into financial trouble after losing property tax exemptions tied to deceased relatives, a bureaucratic gap that can lead to overpayment, code violations and even foreclosure. Community courts and pro bono help are working together to keep longtime residents from losing their homes.<\/p>\n

When her mother, Wilma Johnson, died in 2006, Blackstock\u2019s father, Floyd Johnson, kept ownership of the house, but he suffers from Alzheimer\u2019s disease, and his daughter didn\u2019t know about the house\u2019s finances. <\/p>\n

Floyd Johnson transferred ownership of the house, located in the southern neighborhood of Kleberg in Dallas, to Blackstock in 2023. The homestead exemption was removed in 2018. Neither Blackstock nor her dad knew, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cNobody ever told me I had to reapply,\u201d Blackstock, 58, <\/b>said, standing on the porch of the wood-frame house her family rebuilt after a fire when she was five. \u201cWe thought it just carried over.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result, she was paying several thousand more in property taxes than she needed to.<\/p>\n

\"Yvonne<\/p>\n

Yvonne Blackstock is seen with her cats, Lovely (left) and Sandwich (right), in her house on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, in Dallas.<\/p>\n

Chitose Suzuki \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

The Dallas Central Appraisal District<\/a> did what it was supposed to: It removed the exemption after the owner\u2019s death, but the appraisal district didn\u2019t learn about Wilma\u2019s death until 2016. In 2018, they sent a revocation of homestead exemption letter, and with no follow-up or outreach from the family, the system moved on, appraisal district spokesperson Cheryl Jordan said.<\/p>\n

Every January, by law, the appraisal district mails letters to any property that does not have a homestead exemption, the owner is an individual and the mailing address matches the property address. In 2025, the appraisal district mailed 98,000 letters. About 580,000 properties are exempt, according to the Dallas appraisal district.<\/p>\n

The entity does not track how many people reapply after these letters are mailed out. <\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people just either don\u2019t act or they don\u2019t respond,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cI don\u2019t know why, but until they get a big tax bill, all of a sudden, it gets their attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Under<\/p>\n

Jordan said the appraisal district mailed multiple letters to the Blackstock residence from 2018 to 2025 and never received a response until this summer, when Blackstock submitted a homestead application along with her mother\u2019s death certificate, proof of her Social Security disability and the house deed. <\/p>\n

Community court\u2019s role <\/p>\n

Blackstock didn\u2019t know what to do until the case reached the city\u2019s community court at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center. There, she was assigned to social worker Ebony Eugene. <\/p>\n

The court allows residents cited for property violations to work through community service while addressing the underlying problems that led to the citations. To participate, Blackstock pleaded no contest to the code citations for failure to protect exterior surfaces. In return, she agreed to work off her fines and bring her home up to code. Her community service included cleaning gardens and helping at a food pantry.<\/p>\n

Eugene connected Blackstock with Toby Toler, a Dallas property tax specialist<\/a> who takes on pro bono cases for homeowners caught in bureaucratic limbo.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople like Miss Yvonne [Blackstock] don\u2019t even know where to start,\u201d Toler said. \u201cThey don\u2019t know who to talk to, what forms to bring or what building to go to. The system just assumes everyone can navigate it, and that\u2019s not fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toler drove Blackstock to the Social Security office himself, helping her gather proof of disability \u2014 one of the key documents needed to restore her exemption. After hours of waiting to get this document, he filed the paperwork with the appraisal district in June.<\/p>\n

Three months later, Blackstock\u2019s homestead exemption was approved. The effective date is 2023, meaning she will receive refunds for taxes paid in both 2023 and 2024, approximately $7,400. <\/p>\n

State law allows residents to receive a refund for the difference, dating back to the two previous years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe financial impact of straightening out her title and exemptions is massive,\u201d Toler said.<\/p>\n

Blackstock\u2019s 2025 tax bill was supposed to be $3,735; now she owes $182.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Will<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s like a weight off my shoulders. I can breathe again and continue paying for the repairs in my house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blackstock wants to fix her floor and paint her kitchen red. <\/p>\n

Systemic problems, local solutions<\/p>\n

Toler says Blackstock\u2019s case is far from unique. When a homeowner dies, property title issues \u2014 known as \u201cheirship problems\u201d \u2014 often create confusion about ownership and taxation.<\/p>\n

\"Yvonne<\/p>\n

Yvonne Blackstock stands by a front entrance in her house, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, in Dallas.<\/p>\n

Chitose Suzuki \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

The appraisal district, bound by law to act on death records, removes exemptions, but it doesn\u2019t track whether surviving relatives reapply. Without outreach, thousands of Dallas homeowners \u2014 mostly in older, historically Black or Latino neighborhoods \u2014 fall through the cracks, Toler said.<\/p>\n

In 2023, a new state law required every one of the state\u2019s appraisal districts to audit its homestead discounts at least every five years.<\/a> The appraisal district\u2019s Jordan said if the agency sends homeowners a letter, they should not ignore it. Instead, they should send back their application with an ID that matches the property address. <\/p>\n

If they don\u2019t, their exemptions will be removed. <\/p>\n

In 2024, the appraisal district sent around 17,000 audit letters to properties. The year before, 13,100. <\/p>\n

The entity does not track how many people reapply after these letters are mailed out. <\/p>\n

The appraisal district provides 30 days for residents to reapply, but it typically takes around 60 days for the homestead exemptions to be removed. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe city\u2019s doing it the most expensive way possible,\u201d Toler said. \u201cWhen they ignore people like Blackstock, they end up refunding thousands later or watching generational homes slip away.\u201d<\/p>\n

He and his son have worked to help hundreds of families like Blackstock\u2019s restore exemptions and prevent displacement. The company\u2019s work is driven by a sense of responsibility and passion for helping others, often providing pro bono assistance to those who need it most.<\/p>\n

Toler says it\u2019s work is rooted in a lesson from his late father: \u201cIf you can help someone who has no chance of solving it on their own, do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Blackstock, that help arrived just in time. The code citations are nearly cleared, the foreclosure threat is gone, and she is slowly repainting her porch.<\/p>\n

Her five grandchildren still come over every weekend, filling the house with noise and life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to keep this place for them,\u201d she said. \u201cMom would be proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Residents can find more information about the homestead exemption application process<\/a> and requirements on the appraisal district\u2019s website. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For nearly a decade, Yvonne Blackstock didn\u2019t realize she was paying thousands of dollars in property taxes she…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":369132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,7290,21678,50,14054,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-369131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-county","11":"tag-equity","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-southern-dallas","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-tx","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115525359642073980","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}