Change in US prison essential after evacuation (6)
I believe the answer is:
nickel
'change in us' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to property as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'prison essential after evacuation' is the wordplay.
'prison' becomes 'nick' (slang term for prison).
'essential after evacuation' becomes 'el' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'nick'+'el'='NICKEL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nickel that I've seen before include "Metallic element, Ni" , "Element; five cents in US" , "One twentieth of a US dollar" , "Five-cent piece in the US" , "American 5-cent piece" .)