I appreciate David starting this thread on the effort to set up a
community land trust in Minneapolis (though was disappointed that it
wasn't labeled "list member in the news"...;-).)
Before I provide some background information on what a community land
trust is and how it works to provide permanently affordable housing, I
want to address a concern of Craig Miller, former Fultonite, who writes:
"What about all the extra taxes the other homeowners have to pay. The
land trust house will be paying less taxes then (sic) their similar
neighbors..."
In fact, the owner of a community land trust home pays taxes on the full
assessed value of their home and the land, even though they do not own
the land. In no way would the owner of a CLT home be charged lower taxes
than a neighbor in a similar home.
Want to know more? Read on...
The Minneapolis Community Land Trusts Initiative is a collaboration of
four community-based organizations - Seward Redesign, Powderhorn Park
Neighborhood Association, Lyndale Neighborhood Development Corporation
and Powderhorn Residents Group - that are committed to affordable
housing and have come together to look into CLTs as a possible model
that can help provide more permanent affordable housing in the city's
neighborhoods.
What is a Community Land Trust? A Community Land Trust ("CLT") is a
non-profit community-based organization that holds land for the benefit
of the community. The primary goal of a CLT is to provide permanently
affordable housing to community members. How it works is, the CLT owns
the land, but sells the home to a buyer that fits the criteria set by
the CLT's community-based board. The homeowner then leases the land from
the CLT through a 99-year ground lease. The lease is the key to
connecting the homeowner, usually a first-time low- to moderate-income
family, to the community, and to keeping the house permanently
affordable by including a resale formula that determines the home's sale
price and gives the family a share of the increase in the home's value
when they decide to sell the home. In this way, the investment made in
the home to make it affordable to the first family, remains with the
home to make it affordable to subsequent families as well.
Why do we need something like this in Minneapolis now? Three main reasons:
1. Increasing property values that are already pricing people out of
their neighborhoods, making it difficult for working families to afford
a home
2. Large public investments, such as in the Midtown Greenway and
Hiawatha LRT lines, that will create pressures to push housing prices
even higher
3. Limited public resources for affordable housing that mean we need to
protect investments in affordable housing over the long term
What are the benefits to the community? Manyfold! Here are just a few:
1. Offers community control of affordable housing resources
2. Allows low- and moderate-income families a chance to benefit from
neighborhood revitalization
3. Builds and sustains stable families
4. Provides support to new homeowners
5. Preserves the public subsidy and makes homes affordable to future
generations
6. Could attract new resources to affordable housing
I'd be interested in what list members think about the CLT model and its
applicability in their neighborhoods. Also, I'm available to talk with
folks off-line as well.
So, what do you think?
Cara Letofsky
Seward
Ward Nine
and Minneapolis Community Land Trusts Initiative Project Coordinator
List Manager wrote:
>PiPress has an interesting feature on the land trust concept coming to
>Minneapolis as a way to ease the affordable housing situation.
>
>http://www.pioneerplanet.com/news/mtc_docs/201705.htm
>
>David Brauer
>List manager
>
>
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