[eluser]slowgary[/eluser]
You forgot to send the $data to your view...
Code:
$this->load->view('home_view', $data);
BTW, I'm pretty new to CodeIgniter too and I gotta say I love it! So if you hit some snags along the way please don't be discouraged, the forums are full of knowleadgeable people that are eager to help.
One thing that is probably a good practice in this case would be to check if $title isset() in your view, maybe even replace it with a default value if not. It would just be a little more bulletproof. The alternative is to make sure there will always be a title in your editing part of the software as opposed to the display part (probably better performance this way as you'll likely be adding an article one, and many people would be viewing it).
Good luck with your project.