Community Land Trusts Encouraged by Housing Expert

Yellow Springs is a small town on the outskirts of Dayton, Ohio, with a population of just over 3,500. In 2008, Budget Travel named it one of the ten coolest small cities in the United States. But the Yellow Springs population has been changing over the last few years. The average age has steadily increased, and so have housing prices.

In an effort to draw back some ตึกแถวมือสอง ห้วยขวาง of the young families that were once the backbone of the village, a group of community leaders formed Yellow Springs, Inc, a Community Land Trust (CLT) aimed at helping low- and middle-income families buy affordable homes. The non-profit cooperative also works to keep housing prices at a reasonable level.

John Emmeus Davis, considered by many to be an expert in affordable housing development, recently visited Yellow Springs to give Community Land Trust organizers some encouragement and advice. Davis called the Yellow Springs CLT "remarkably successful," and praised the village for its vitality. He also suggested that the village could attract other developers by making incentives available to those who include affordable housing in their development plans.

The concept of Community Land Trusts has been around for centuries, but the name itself was used until the 1960s. The Institute for Community Economics is credit for its creation. An official definition was created in 1992 by the Federal Housing and Community Development Act, and government funding for the Trusts was made available. Through a CLT, affordable housing is made available to low- and middle-income families because they're only purchasing the house. The land is leased by the home buyer, and owned by the CLT.

Studies have shown that Community Land Trusts not only help low- and middle-income families get into homes, but they help people stay in homes, too. A study conducted by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, in partnership with the National Community Land Trust Network found that foreclosure rates in CLTs were about half the national average.

Lower foreclosure rates can be attributed not only to the lower priced homes in Community Land Trusts, but to the fact that the homeowners are more closely scrutinized. They have to meet specific income requirements, and they're carefully guided through the process so that they understand the agreement they're entering into. In contrast, people applying for traditional home loans in recent years weren't required to verify their income, nor to understand the nature of their mortgage agreements.