A Grounded Solution: Community Land Trusts

Over time, property is almost guaranteed to go up in value. That’s a problem if you have a limited income and want to buy a house. Unless the house is in a community land trust (CLT) which retains ownership of the land and restricts the resale price of the home. CLTs are slowly gaining steam across the US and there is evidence this model is working.  

Interview guests: Civil rights activist who helped start the first US CLT Shirley Sherrod, Executive Director Atlanta Land Trust Amanda Rhein, Executive Director Yellow Springs Home, Inc. Emily Seibel and Renting Partnerships founder Margery Spinney. 

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Transcript

Ann Thompson:

How do you help keep houses affordable? Some cities are taking a chapter out of the Southern Civil Rights Movement.

Shirley Sherrod:

I really didn't know until later years that others were actually using the model that we created.

Ann Thompson:

That model was the beginning of the land trust, which in today's form acquires land selling only the house at an affordable rate. The homeowner is then limited to what they can sell it for, keeping the home affordable.

Emily Siebel:

Our mission is to strengthen community and diversity by providing permanently affordable and sustainable housing through our community land trust.

Ann Thompson:

Many people are benefiting, living in a home they might not have been able to afford had it been outside the trust,

Valerie Chronis Bickett:

Fell in love with the geography, fell in love with the town. It's been a long time coming, but realizing we couldn't afford it.

Ann Thompson:

And as affordably priced homes are disappearing at an alarming rate, community land trusts are one way to help fill the void. In some cases, private developers are partnering with nonprofits.

Joel Dixon:

I didn't want to sit back and watch others or wait on others. I wanted to be more intentional about taking action.

Ann Thompson:

On this episode of Brick By Brick Community Land Trusts, their history, their limitations, and what the evidence says about their success. Let's get into it. This is Brick by Brick: Solutions for a Thriving Community.

Ame Clase:

Brick by Brick is made possible thanks to leading support from Debra and Robert Chavez, Greater Cincinnati Foundation and the George and Margaret McLane Foundation, with additional major support from The AES Ohio Foundation, Laurie Johnston and the Seasongood Good Government Foundation, Diane and Dave Moccia, The Robert and Jean Penny Endowment Fund of The Dayton Foundation, P&G, the Robert & Adelle Schiff Family Foundation, and more. Thank you.

Ann Thompson:

Hello, and welcome to Brick by Brick, where we're highlighting solutions for a thriving community in Southwest Ohio. I'm your host, Ann Thompson. The idea for land trusts is not new. In just a minute, we'll hear from a woman, who during the civil rights movement, helped plant the idea in the us. In the meantime, here's how it works. Nonprofits acquire land with the help of donations, fundraising, and subsidies. These trusts retain ownership of the land in perpetuity, but develop and sell housing at an affordable rate down the road. When the homeowner gets ready to move, that person can only sell for a set amount, keeping the home affordable to the next person and so on. There are 308 Community Land Trusts or CLTs in the US according to the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, which released a report in November. It surveyed 115 of them looking at their expansion and their operation and issued recommendations which we'll get to later in the pod. But first, let's focus on Albany, Georgia. In the 1960s, early in the decade, more than a thousand blacks were jailed and what historians say was the first mass movement in the modern civil rights era. Martin Luther King Jr. came and left in December, 1961, unable to solve the crisis. Activists Shirley Sherrod and her late husband, Charles recognized the problem

Shirley Sherrod:

As we were helping people to exercise their right to vote, children integrating formerly white schools and so forth, those who were living on land owned by white landowners would get kicked off the land because of their efforts to try to exercise their rights.

Ann Thompson:

That's when the Sherrods and a handful of others knew something had to be done. Eight of them traveled to Israel to learn about the kibbutz. They were also inspired by community owned land in England, India, Tanzania, and Mexico. When they came back from Israel, they bought 6,000 acres where hundreds of African-Americans could live in Southwest Georgia. This laid the groundwork for the land trust,

Shirley Sherrod:

So the original plan was that they would actually become homeowners. They would get a long-term renewable lease on the plot where their house was located so they would actually own the home, and then we all owned the land together. That plan was about 400 and something pages. I mean, we planned every phase of that community and the people who were going to live there became part of that planning process. It was really empowering to hear people talk about what they wanted in education, what they wanted in healthcare, and were really to work for that. But of course, because of the opposition, we couldn't move forward.

Ann Thompson:

Shots fired at the few buildings on the land and vetoes of federal money to build houses so the New Communities Land Trust pivoted instead. Farming the land that worked until a drought hit. Prompting foreclosure in 1985. Sherrod and others didn't give up many years later. In 2009, they won a class action lawsuit against the USDA and bought a former slave plantation, which they now use to train farmers. Partnering with area colleges. The idea is you don't have to grow peanuts and cotton, which take lots of equipment.

Shirley Sherrod:

We have training plots for growing rice where using less seed, less water, less chemicals. We have truffles this past year or this year, planted grapes for winemaking.

Ann Thompson:

Sherrod says there's not enough land for houses, but she is inspired by how New Communities spurred community land trusts all over the us. Some 30 years later, Yellow Springs, Ohio has a connection to the civil rights movement. Shirley Sherrod got her master's degree from Antioch College and Martin Luther King Jr's wife, the former Coretta Scott, graduated from there. Yellow Springs also has one of the oldest community land trusts, Brick by Brick’s. Hernz Laguerre Jr. reports on how it operates, how it differs from one in Cincinnati, and how both are helping people find affordable housing.

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

Valerie Chronis Bickett wanted to buy a house in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Valerie Chronis Bickett:

Two of our three kids went to Antioch, graduated from Antioch along the way, 25 years or maybe longer we've been coming up here, fell in love with the geography, fell in love with the town. It's been a long time coming, but realizing we couldn't afford it.

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

Yellow Springs is a competitive housing market with the median sales price of $450,000. According to Real estate company, Redfin, this is where Yellow Springs Home Incorporated steps in.

Emily Siebel:

Our mission is to strengthen community and diversity by providing permanently affordable and sustainable housing through our community Land Trust.

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

That's Emily Sebel, executive Director of Home Inc. The Community Development Corporation has been operating for the last 26 years. She explains how these land trusts keep homes forever affordable.

Emily Siebel:

So we're taking land and putting it into a trust that has community governance. We're preserving public subsidy for the greater good, and we're thinking generations ahead because land is very powerful.

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

These land trusts make it possible to afford the sought after community of Yellow Springs.

Valerie Chronis Bickett:

The desire I had to live here, I didn't question when a house became available. We're moving in here.

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

40 homes developed by Home Inc. With more than 80 residents housed in such a desired market. Had to take a look at some of these developments myself. First stop was at the…

Emily Siebel:

Glenn Cottages pocket neighborhood, which is 12 units. It's half rental, half for sale, all part of the Community Land Trust, and it was designed to be really inclusive and to create a sense of community and pedestrian connectivity.

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

The cool part about this Land Trust is that it brings in about a hundred thousand in annual property tax revenue. Right? In addition to that, I think you guys invested 7 million in the 26 years that you guys have been here. What does that impact mean to the community?

Emily Siebel:

I think there are a couple of different ways that it impacts the community. Obviously, we're improving the local housing stock, creating housing that meets big gaps in our market in Yellow Springs property is really valuable, so even someone making the median income can't afford the median home sale price.

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

Tell me a little bit about the hope or where you guys are trying to expand to.

Emily Siebel:

Right now. We have a construction underway on a 32-unit new project about a block that way if you want to check it out.

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

Yeah, let's do it.

Emily Siebel:

This is the future site of the Cascades Projects, which is over 10 years in the making. Wow. It's at least a $10 million project and we're doing it in phases. The funding stack does not include tax credits.

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

What does it mean to you to know that the Land Trust is expanding to new land here?

Emily Siebel:

Oh, it's awesome just to be at the point where we're able to move forward with this long awaited project that is so wanted by seniors and so rooted in community and is a wonderful feeling.

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

New construction is also underway in the Avondale neighborhood in Cincinnati. It will add to the stock of an alternative land trust,

Margery Spinney:

So we are land trust, but we feel like we've evolved to have a solution for land trust to deal with rental housing.

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

Cool, so it's like a land trust hybrid?

Margery Spinney:

Yes, it's definitely a land trust hybrid.

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

That's Marjorie Spinney co-founder of the organization Renting Partnerships, which has a land trust that builds financial equity through resident participation in community management.

Margery Spinney:

It has elements of owning and elements of renting. Essentially what we do is we project a budget, which includes turnover and vacancy allowances like any rental housing property, what we do in our lease is contract with residents.

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

This contract is called a rental equity agreement. You agree to at least five years. That's the only way you can access those credits and you commit to the upkeep of the property as well as attend monthly resident meetings and more,

Margery Spinney:

And what we have proven over the last 20 some years is that those commitments save enough money on the turnover and vacancy costs of operating property that we can fund financial credits for our residents.

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

Which helps residents like Joy, a single mother of five who lives in one of Marjorie's rental properties. She said her family spent too patient and prayerful years for better housing.

Joy:

And very just proud of the Lord for answering prayers and just having faith in me and just being able to have a beautiful home and it's safe and the environment's good for the kids.

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

The structure and reliability of renting partnerships is something she didn't have before.

Joy:

Right before Covid, we moved into a duplex in Spring Grove Village. It was a lovely neighborhood, but the duplex itself was in pretty bad shape and our landlord was a very busy man and he was very hard to get ahold of.

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

She says the Community Land Trust is a great example for her kids.

Joy:

When Margie explained the way the program works, how tenants are looked at as like a team or family, you have a voice and how you can earn equity by, by contributing to the home. As a mother, I'm like, ooh, some incentives. They could see that hard work pays off,

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

Whether it's in Cincinnati or in Yellow Springs, this all in this together mindset towards land Trust can impact residents in unique and profound ways.

Valerie Chronis Bickett:

What makes a good community is that you have a relationship with the land that the landscape can be, can speak to you too. The landscape was part of the health of the community, then.

Ann Thompson:

Thanks for that Hernz, and thanks for explaining that the Land Trust could take different forms. I appreciated hearing about those examples and it's interesting how this effort could possibly lead to a land trust in Dayton.

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

Yeah. Destiny Brown, she works with the Dayton Tenants Union and she shared with me that they're currently stalled on their land trust as they figure out some logistical issues with the public housing authority. So it is not so easy just to create a land trust. It needs to take some time and there's a lot of steps to it, but they're pressing forward because as Destiny shared with me, having a land trust will fill a major need in creating affordable housing in that community.

Ann Thompson:

That's good news. We'll catch up with you later in the takeaways.

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

Yes, ma'am.

Ann Thompson:

A different Cincinnati Land Trust than the one Hernz talked about was the nation's first urban CLT. So unlike some other community land trusts, it was in a city. The Community Land Cooperative of Cincinnati was founded in 1981. Seven Hills Community Housing in the West End took it over and in the last decade, converted it to traditional housing selling both the land and the house affordably to buyers, so it's no longer a land trust. The largest land trust in the country has more than 3,000 properties and it's in Vermont, but most have fewer than 100 properties in states like California, New York and Washington where housing costs are high, there are multiple land trusts. California has more than 40 and CLTs are expanding to Florida, Texas, and across the Midwest. This is in part to ward off what is known as “disaster gentrification.” So despite flooding and wildfires where new construction can raise home and property values, the land can remain affordable. Community land trusts have evolved. The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy says no to or alike. The Atlanta Land Bank has a traditional model selling homes to qualified families while retaining ownership of the underlying land. Executive director Amanda Rhein says it, and other Atlanta nonprofits are focused on the redevelopment of a 22 mile corridor around the inner city.

Amanda Rhein:

It's attracting a lot of investment in jobs and as a result, putting pressure on those historic black neighborhoods that are in the immediate area. What we're doing is trying to preserve affordability in those historically black communities.

Ann Thompson:

Many land trusts have moved from single developments to scattered sites and from new development to buying existing homes, including Atlanta. The Land Trust has 70 homes with another 100 in development and another 175 in the pipeline.

Amanda Rhein:

About half of our inventory is town homes and about half are single family homes, so it's a mix of those two. Looking to the future, we'll probably have a couple of additional housing typologies including accessory dwelling units and duplexes.

Ann Thompson:

About 88% of people who own homes inside a land trust are first time home buyers. In Durham, North Carolina, one study showed the CLT was successful in stabilizing the neighborhood and preserving affordable housing and the owner-occupied housing rate increased inside the land trust more than in the city of Durham, which had a much higher per capita income. Also rents increased less for properties managed by the land trust. CLTs also give people a stake in the neighborhood development and collective decision-making. Rutgers analyzed the large CLT in Minneapolis and says it found strong evidence that Land Trust properties played a role in stabilizing the city's neighborhoods that were hit hardest by the foreclosure crisis. 

There's still plenty ahead on today's pod coming up on Brick by Brick. What we can learn from other community land trusts in Boston, the CLT goes beyond affordable housing.

Lydia Lowe:

Organizing is at the core of what we need to do to build power, but we see the Community Land trusts as another tool that we can use to kind of try to hold on to some of the things that we've won while buying

Ann Thompson:

Homes and building a portfolio can only go so far. That's coming up on Brick by Brick.

Ame Clase:

Brick by Brick is made possible thanks to the generous support of so many, including Rosmary & Mark Schlachter, The Camden Foundation, Patti & Fred Heldman, DeeDee & Gary West, The Stephen H. Wilder Foundation, Judith & Thomas Thompson, a donation in memory of Frank and Margaret Linhardt, and more. Thank you. We couldn't do this work without you.

Mark Lammers:

When we talk about thriving in our neighborhoods, I tend to think about sustainability because any improvements we make, we want them to endure, right? Hi, my name's Mark Lammers and I'm the executive producer for Brick By Brick, and while our team stays focused on exploring and uncovering the next viable solution to what ails us, we're looking to you to help hold us accountable and keep this thing sustainable. And while a donation does go a long way at CET and ThinkTV, in this case, we're just asking for a little time and feedback right now. There's a big green button on our website and a link in the podcast show notes to our audience feedback form. We'd be so grateful if you shared your thoughts about the work we're doing so we can keep improving and connecting solution minded neighbors like yourself with the social responses that will move our cities in the right direction. Your feedback also helps us seek funding to keep this effort going. We appreciate your time and can't wait to hear from someone in every neighborhood. Thank you.

Ann Thompson:

Welcome back to Brick by Brick. Private developer Joel Dixon saw gentrification and displacement firsthand in the Atlanta neighborhoods he grew up in, but he also understands the motivation to make money from property you own.

Joel Dixon:

That's just who we are. We're normal people, so we're going to sell whatever the market is, which means if the market has gone up, that house price has gone up.

Ann Thompson:

Dixon heard about the Albany Georgia Land Trust idea with the Sherrods and wondered if that was the answer in Atlanta.

Joel Dixon:

I knew about that just from a social justice standpoint, but then years later as I was exploring it, I found that hey, the trust really is a good model, not only for the reasons it was started with, but also for preserving communities, including the preservation of affordability.

Ann Thompson:

He and his partner joined forces with the Atlanta Land Trust to create affordable housing.

Joel Dixon:

It's a nice hand and glove, kind of two superpowers coming together for the collective benefit.

Ann Thompson:

This partnership has enabled the Atlanta Land Trust to increase its portfolio. What also helps is working with the Atlanta Land Bank like The Port in Cincinnati. It provides a lot of public financing for private development and lets the Land Trust acquire land for below market prices. Homeowners are benefiting. Executive Director Amanda Ryan says most have only been in their homes one to two years, and while it may be too early for hard evidence, there are anecdotal stories.

Amanda Rhein:

We have one homeowner, Mikesha, who since moving into her land trust home, has been able to quit her job and start her own business in the neighborhood in which she lives. We have another homeowner who was able to pursue her law degree because again, she had the stability and the affordability of her Atlanta Land Trust Home

Ann Thompson:

CLTs have increased 30% in the last decade. Indianapolis appropriated one and a half million dollars to start a Land Trust last year and partner with a nonprofit. Louisville did the same. Oakland California has a bigger pot of money thanks to a bond levy. It awarded more than 4 million to two. CLTs Chicago has a shared equity investment program providing up to $100,000 for each affordable unit along with associated carrying costs. You could read more about these city's efforts@cetconnect.org and thinktv.org. Even though affordable housing is at the core of Boston's Chinatown community Land Trust, the organization sees its mission as more than buying buildings. Lydia Lowe talked about it at a Canadian network of Community Land Trust conference a year ago.

Lydia Lowe:

We're trying to get a rezoning of the community that would favor some of our goals. We're working for a tenant opportunity to purchase and we successfully got a short-term rental ordinance that regulates short-term

Ann Thompson:

Rentals. The organization reclaimed seven now permanently affordable condominiums from short-term rental use. The CLT is also focused on racial and environmental justice issues. One involves an immigrant history trail.

Lydia Lowe:

In which we're marking different spots around Chinatown with a QR code so that people can hear stories. We're also working with an artist on placing bronze statues of immigrant workers in for sites around Chinatown.

Ann Thompson:

One of the limitations is the money it takes to buy housing, especially in a city like Boston. Lowe says in Chinatown, half the area needs affordable housing and buying up a lot of buildings is too expensive. So that's why the nonprofit publication Shelterforce.org reports the Chinatown Community Land Trust has adopted other methods of preserving affordable housing, including advocating for stronger tenant protections. Shelterforce also quotes The Crescent City CLT in New Orleans as saying, our goals are to impact city policy and state policy. We're looking for permanent affordability to be the standard. That's how we impact the city beyond the couple of hundred units, couple of thousand at most that we as an organization will ultimately be able to develop beyond the cost of land construction and renovation are limitations on land use. Forbes reports, many states west of the Mississippi have stringent limits on donating land to private entities even for affordable housing.

This is because many states gave away land to railroads and then got burned. Forbes says some states like New Mexico have amended their constitutions to allow it. Scaling Community Land Trust remains a challenge as of 2022. Shared equity homeownership models of which the Community Land Trust is one, make up a very small portion of total home ownership. 13,000 homes that's well below 1%. Advocates say the goal should be much higher. The Lincoln Institute of Land policies surveyed 115 land Trusts last year and found their real estate portfolios have become larger. Their organizational structures are more diverse, their service areas have grown bigger and racial equity and climate change have become preeminent concerns. The Institute has eight recommendations for cities to champion, including mobilizing support, investing in stewardship as well as development, and avoid clawing back in taxes and fees, which can result in a net loss for the lower income populations that a CLT and its municipal partner are trying to serve. You can read the full report@cetconnect.org and thinktv.org. 

We want to hear from you as Brick By Brick develops more episodes. Go to our website, cetconnect.org and thinktv.org where there's a big green button to give feedback On the website. You'll find web articles if you want to dig deeper into the material. You can also see Emiko and Hernz's videos. 

We've come to the end of the episode talking about land trusts. Really a lot to think about here, and we're joined once again by Brick, by Brick’s, Emiko Moore. 

Emiko Moore:

Hello

Ann Thompson

And we welcome Hernz Laguerre Jr. to the studio.

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

Hey everyone.

Ann Thompson:

Who wants to go first?

Emiko Moore:

I will. I'm really excited about this. It's exciting to see a long-term housing solution like this. It's permanently affordable. There's no expiration date as we see in some other kinds of programs, and the community members really have a say in its future. Think about how much time, energy, money programs there are to create affordable housing, and I think the importance of housing stability cannot be overstated. It's so vital for families. I think this could be a huge building block for building thriving communities.

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

Yeah, Emiko, I think you're totally right because we see land trusts popping up in communities all across the country in order to sustain affordable housing. One example I really liked was out in San Francisco, the San Francisco Community Land Trust created theirs nine years ago to keep a popular and increasingly expensive neighborhood from raising the rates of a 20 unit apartment building. So we see these examples happening and we see communities coming together in order to sustain their community and so that they could thrive themselves.

Ann Thompson:

And if you think about it, that really is the one stumbling block- cost to expanding community land trusts because many of them have fewer than a hundred properties. And if you want to expand, you're just going to run into that problem of not having enough money.

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

And I think that's why you have places like Connecticut and they're trying to change their laws in regards to property taxes in order to make it cost effective.

Ann Thompson:

And as I understand it, there are 20 states that have taken steps that have laws on the books that enable or foster CLT development. In addition, states like Vermont have provided additional sources of funding. What else is on your mind?

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

Yeah, I just find it interesting that even though there are different communities from east to west, you have a lot of these people who are joining together in order to see what they can do because things are getting more expensive and in order to keep a property at the same price to give families who are trying to start, who are trying to get into the housing market in order to give them a chance, these land trusts are coming in clutch because it is giving them an opportunity to do that.

Ann Thompson:

That's what we think. We want you to be part of this solutions conversation. You can share your thoughts via our webpage or by emailing Brick by brick at publicmediaconnect.org. Thanks guys.

Hernz Laguerre Jr.:

No problem.

Emiko Moore:

Thank you.

Ann Thompson:

Coming up in the next episode of Brick By Brick, the housing stock in Cincinnati and Dayton is old with many 80 plus years. 

Show tease:

“They're currently living with giant holes or rooms that they can't even go in because there's just buckets with trying to catch the rainfall that comes in. And so people have continued to live in these houses, and so we want to be able to get more funding to do more.”

Ann Thompson:

On the next Brick by Brick, we look at preservation and its importance for creating or maintaining housing. 

That's our show. If you like what you hear, please rate and review our podcast. It helps finding the pod a little easier. If you like what you heard, please share it with your friends, family or your neighborhood council. For Hernz Laguerre Jr. and Emiko Moore, I'm Ann Thompson. We'll be back soon with more solutions. Take care. 

Our show is produced, hosted an edited by me, Ann Thompson with reporting and story editing from Hernz Laguerre Jr. and Emiko Moore. Our Executive producer of Mark Lammers. Our show consultant is Gloria Skurski. Gabe Wimberly is our audio engineer and mixer. Zach Kramer runs the lights and cameras. Derrick Smith is our production specialist and Jason Garrison is our production manager. Kellie May heads up our marketing and promotions, along with Mike Shea and Bridgett Dillenburger. Elyssa Stefenson handles the website and Steve Wright is our designer. Bill Dean and Andres Kruza are the engineers for the show and our Chief Content Officer is Colin Scianamblo. Our music is from Universal Production Music. Brick by Brick: Solutions for a Thriving Community is a production of CET and ThinkTV, Southwest Ohio PBS member stations.