An Introduction to Community Land Trusts
“The most distinctive feature of affordable housing policy in the United States in recent years has been its unrelenting focus on promoting homeownership as a social good, and on increasing the ranks of homeowners among the nation’s lower income households. To this end, a variety of strategies have been employed, including capital subsidies, down payment and closing cost assistance, and an ever-increasing array of creative mortgage instruments, offering adjustable rates, lower down payments, longer terms, balloons and other mechanisms that increase immediate access to housing at the price of future risk and uncertainty.
Perhaps as a result of these efforts, although unusually low interest rates and generally low unemployment rates have also played their part, homeownership rates have inched upward. By 2004, 69 percent of American households owned their own home, up from 64 percent in 1985. At the same time, particularly for lower income households and people of color, the downside of this strategy is becoming more and more apparent. Foreclosures are rising in many parts of the nation and, as recent research has shown, a disproportionately large share of lower income homeowners lose their homes, finding themselves back in the rental market a few years later.” Shared Equity Homeownership The Changing Landscape of Resale-Restricted Owner-Occupied Housing by John Emmeus Davis found at http://www.nhi.org/index.php/research/522/shared_equity_homeownership/.
Homeownership in America has historically meant stability. According to DiPasquale and Glaeser in their article titled, “Incentives and Social Capital: Are Homeowners Better Citizens” “Homeowners are approximately 10 percent more likely to know their U.S. representative by name. They are 9 percent more likely know the identity of their school board head. Homeowners are 15 percent more likely to vote in local elections and 6 percent more likely to work to solve local problems. On average, they are members of.25 percent more non-professional organizations than non-owners. Homeowners are 12 percent more likely to garden and they attend church 30% more frequently than renters.” Children of homeowners perform better in school and their parents are able to be contributing members of their communities. The benefits are clear…if homes are affordable.
Homeownership, in its many guises, is front page news for 2008. With significant public and private funding available for assisting low and moderate income homeowners to purchase homes, how can the affordability created for a first-time buyer be maintained in that property for generations to come? How can affordable homes weather the difficult climate that surrounds economic vitality during our life time and even beyond? One answer is the Community Land Trust model. This Toolbox is an introduction to Community Land Trusts and how they work to provide homeownership opportunities for low and moderate income families while at the same time building a growing stock of homes that will remain permanently affordable generation after generation. The Toolbox also provides numerous and varied resources for more in depth study. It is our hope that the information here will assist communities everywhere to implementing Community Land Trust organizations and programs. |
