Hi, I’m Yves. This program in Montana is a welcome development at a time when homelessness is worsening across the US as home prices continue to rise faster than wage growth. While it may be hard to replicate elsewhere, it shows that a new approach to homeownership can help ease skyrocketing home prices.
That being said, there is a variant of this kind of scheme in Manhattan – I can’t remember the name – but it’s just west of 8th Avenue, above 23rd Street. Buyers pay 10% of the current price, and the selling price is capped similar to the Montana scheme. There is a 10 year waiting list for these units.
By Damon Orion, an author, journalist, musician, artist, and teacher living in Santa Cruz, California. His work has appeared in publications such as Revolver, Guitar World, Spirituality + Health, Classic Rock, and High Times. To learn more about his work, visit Visit DamonOrion.com. Production: Regional Peace Economy
In 1969, a group of civil rights activists in southwest Georgia came to the aid of black sharecroppers who had lost their homes and jobs because they had registered to vote, according to the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization. Collective New Community Co., Ltd.“They helped Black farmers overcome the forces that excluded them from land ownership, including industrial agriculture, racism, and predatory lending.”
“Founded as a collective farm,” this grassroots organization became America’s first community land trust.
Today, Community Land Trust (CLT) systems continue to gain momentum around the world. July 2024, WorldCLTDay.org attention“Over the past 50 years, the CLT movement has driven the creation of more than 600 community land trusts around the world.”
In the CLT model, low-income individuals or families purchase a home and land, usually owned by a nonprofit corporation. The buyers agree to a reasonable resale price for any subsequent buyers to ensure permanent affordable homeownership.
Montana’s first community land trust, the North Missoula Community Development AuthorityNational Center for Medical TechnologyThe Missoula Community Foundation was founded in 1992. Founding Chairman Bob Oakes had bought a home in north Missoula with his wife four years earlier. “I was a furniture mover and my wife was a medical transcriptionist,” he recalled. “Two people making what we made couldn’t afford to buy a house here today.”
At the time, Oakes’ working-class neighborhood was cut off from access to Missoula’s downtown amenities by numerous railroad tracks. As Oakes tried to mobilize his neighbors to support a pedestrian bridge, he repeatedly found that “residents didn’t care about the neighborhood,” says NMCDC executive director Brittany Palmer. “They saw the neighborhood as a stepping stone to get to another neighborhood. People weren’t interested in staying in the neighborhood, calling it home, and making the neighborhood better.”
That’s what sparked Oakes’ interest in housing: He thought that if more Northside residents had homes, they would be more enthusiastic about improving their neighborhood, so he began offering down payment assistance to families in need.
But Palmer points out that, “like all down payment assistance programs that aren’t tied to a community land trust or dealer restrictions, the investment helps that one household, but the subsidy they worked hard to give to community members is lost when they sell their home in the regular market.”After seeing this happen a few times, Oakes adopted the CLT model.
In 1996, NMCDC became a nonprofit corporation and formed the North Missoula Housing Partnership that same year. HelpedAbout 35 families on the North and West Sides have achieved homeownership, and the organization’s efforts have expanded citywide, helping more than 110 families achieve homeownership.
NMCDC has a long history of empowering local communities and helping to improve equity in the neighborhood: “With the help of a full-time community organizer on staff, we help our Northside and Westside neighbors hone their trained leadership skills to build stronger relationships and community power, enact structural change, and take action to increase equity in their neighborhoods.” state NMCDC website.
Maintaining racial equality
black and Indigenous Peoples Community and Other People of Color Throughout American history, we have faced displacement and poverty. Disproportionately vulnerable Housing instability continues today, and COVID-19 Worse.
“Due to lower wages and historical discrimination that has prevented people from owning home and building wealth, people of color are more likely to live in rental housing and struggle to pay the rent,” the Opportunity Starts at Home campaign said. Point out.
“U.S. homeownership rates vary significantly by race and ethnicity, with the highest homeownership rates in the fourth quarter of 2023 for non-Hispanic white Americans at 73.8%, followed by Asian Americans (63%), Hispanic Americans (49.8%) and Black Americans (45.9%),” the National Association of Home Builders said, citing Census Bureau data.
Many of these communities areRed Line“Denial of loans and insurance to residents of predominantly black and other minority communities”
These housing issues have far-reaching implications for the public health and well-being of people in minority communities. “Our research makes clear that property quality and even neighborhood location are the result of historical local and federal policies that intentionally segregated and marginalized communities, and continue to have significant effects on the health and well-being of minority communities today. That is why public health interventions must address the physical, psychosocial, and historical dimensions of housing.” explain Dr. Rasheeda Taliaferro Monroe, a pediatrician at WakeMed Hospital, spoke to Forbes in 2024.
CLTs address these inequities and help people from underrepresented and marginalized communities become homeowners. Notes The program argued it would promote racial equity by “prioritizing housing preservation in gentrifying neighborhoods.”
NMCDC helps provide housing in neighborhoods that are predominantly populated by people of color, as well as through programs that promote more progressive zoning codes. Pro Housing Missoula“The history of zoning in this country is racist and classist,” Palmer noted. “Missoula’s traditionally working-class neighborhoods have seen higher rates of redevelopment than more affluent neighborhoods. We want to see some of that redevelopment spread gently and equitably across Missoula, so we’re building a lot of support by helping citizens understand how zoning affects their daily lives and why it’s important to have a more equitable zoning code.”
Strength in numbers
In 2023, NMCDC will develop Montana’s first CLT-based Limited equity housing cooperatives: An eight-unit, three-building apartment development. Wolf Avenue CollectiveLater that year, River Rocks CooperativeThe three adjacent parcels feature 14 units of various types, including duplexes, mobile homes and single-family homes.
In a limited equity housing cooperative system, shareholders purchase homes as a group: “The residents own the shares, the housing cooperative owns the building, and NMCDC holds the land in trust,” Palmer explains.
Residents in these communities receive support and technical assistance from NMCDC to oversee the maintenance of their properties. “We work with residents to ensure that their acquisition budgets and ongoing operating budgets support the costs associated with property management, repairs and other capital improvements,” Palmer explains. “Residents have control over a variety of things, including when and what repairs to make, who to hire for property management and maintenance, and whether and when to increase rent.”
Palmer mentions Amanda, a resident of the River Locks Co-op, who was initially skeptical about joining the co-op, but her attitude changed as the organization coached her on the specifics of finances, property assessments and individual home inspections.
“As we go through the process, people start to understand the different dynamics and how the fundraising is going and they get more and more excited,” Palmer says.
Amanda eventually became the co-op’s board president. “She was handing out flyers and knocking on doors in the neighborhood,” Palmer recalls. “She became our biggest cheerleader for the project, and now she’s spreading the word to other potential communities we identified and sharing the stories of people who’d been through this process.”
Community Service
NMCDC’s humanitarian work goes beyond housing. For example, in 2006, the organization purchased 1.5 acres of land in west Missoula. Barnes Street Community CentreThe establishment is not only a hub for special events and community bonding, but also houses venues like Burns Street Bistro. Western Montana Growers Cooperativeand Plant Parks Commissary KitchenThus, community centers improve food access in areas with limited food purchasing options within walking distance.
NMCDC also helped create Missoula landmarks. Northside Pedestrian Bridge, California Street Bridgeand West Side ParkOther projects the group has founded or co-founded include the Missoula Urban Demonstration Project. Tool Library And a program like this: Kids Clubhouse and Missoula Outdoor Cinema.
But affordable housing remains a top priority for the organization. “It’s exciting to slowly decommodify housing and change people’s mindsets about what housing can be used for,” Palmer says. “I want to think of housing not just as a human right but as a community asset. I think a lot of communities would benefit from having some of their housing stock secured and protected as a community asset, in the same way that hiking trails are considered community asset.”
