How Community Land Trusts Preserve Land for Affordable Housing
Community land trusts, a tool to create affordable homeownership and land opportunities where the land is held in trust, are not a new idea. They’ve been around since the 1960s, and have gained popularity recently as a means to cultivate affordable, sustainable communities - especially in California, where homeownership is becoming prohibitively more expensive.
How can you get involved in a community land trust? Here are just a few of the options:
Homebuyers: Priced out of your local market? Purchase a home on a community land trust property at below market rate (the land stays with the community)
Renters: Live in a community dedicated to sharing resources and keeping housing affordable
Homeowners: Sell your home at a reduced rate, or donate it, to a land trust to preserve it as housing for your community. Work with a land trust on your retirement and age-in-place planning.
We spoke to three professionals who work with community land trusts in order to gain a wider understanding of this unique type of affordable housing.
Addressing Regional Challenges
Community Land Trust of West Marin
Pam Dorr, Executive Director
Community Land Trust of West Marin (CLAM) works on projects with ADUs and Tiny Homes, projects that prioritize aging in place, low-income housing tax credit projects, and planned giving processes (through which people give their properties to become affordable housing). In an area where “low income” means $149,000 or less for a family of four, CLAM needs to know how to serve different income levels by understanding what they can afford. This is particularly true in the unincorporated rural areas served by CLAM, where SB9 regulations do not yet apply. CLAM hopes regulations will change to allow more small homes on a lot in these areas - for example, requiring small towns to have sewer systems and abolishing rules that only allow one home per acre in small rural downtowns. They also hope that more financing tools will become available that allow community land trusts to create more tenants-in-common projects by selling an ADU separately from the main home on a property.
Who lives in CLTs in California?
California Community Land Trust Network
Lydia Lopez, Co-Director for Organizing and Partnership
California Community Land Trust Network has a wide reach. With 33 established CLTs in 22 counties, over 1,600 housing units, and over 3,500 residents, these community land trusts have had a massive effect on California’s most housing-insecure population (75% of residents earn $65,000 per year or less). The network was founded to help CLTs of all types organize, promote strategic partnerships, and secure funding. Not only do CLTs in the network promote community ownership as a strategy to sustain vulnerable communities, but they also provide essential services and facilities to residents including financial counseling, disaster preparation, employment workshops, leadership programs, and activities for families. Many of the CLTs rely on program revenue and local government subsidy to operate - the biggest issues are funding and staff capacity. Currently, CA CLT Network is working on outreach and education initiatives so more people know that CLTs exist and are willing to fund them, and strategic partnerships with lenders to make lending more CLT-friendly.
CLTs Beyond California
City of Lakes CLT
Stacy Horwitz, Operations Director
City of Lakes CLT, located in Minneapolis, has over 350 homes in trust in 47 of the 81 neighborhoods in Minneapolis. Using a 25% appraisal-based formula (25% goes to the homeowner, 75% to the CLT), they have served over 460 households since 2002 in all types of homes including single-family homes, condos, townhomes, and duplexes. City of Lakes CLT started exploring multigenerational homes and ADUs in 2013 after receiving requests from the community for more multigenerational options. At the time, the city had no ADU regulations, but the CLT was still able to build and sell four homes with ADUs. These homes were costly to build and required a substantial affordability and development gap but were an excellent option for families that wanted to live multi-generationally. Understanding the gap between City and State codes was key to completing the projects - as is the case anywhere without statewide ADU regulations.
Welcome, new members!
Casita Coalition welcomed 7 new business members in November, including:
New California Restoration
Welcome to Casita Coalition! We look forward to ongoing conversation and collaboration with you all!
To join Casita Coalition, click here.