Central Missouri Community Action's Safe and Affordable Housing Taskforce hosted a webinar Thursday afternoon during which Callaway County community members could learn from the Columbia Community Land Trust.
"We're subsidizing the gap between what the market is doing and what a certain income household can afford," Columbia Housing Supervisor Randall Cole said.
Community land trusts are typically community-based nonprofit corporations that retain ownership of the land. Cole explained how the method can help address many of the important challenges related to affordable housing.
"How do make housing affordable and keep it affordable over time?" Cole said. "How do we also prevent unwanted displacement of low income households from the communities in which they live in?"
With long-term land leases, low income households can purchase and own the structure.
"They take a very unique and long term approach to home ownership by altering the structure of the deal," he said.
The land trust sells the home at an affordable price to a buyer who meets certain income requirements. The homeowner agrees to share that affordability with future homeowners and agree to a resale formula to determine what price the home will be sold at when the owner moves on.
"(The CLT) is there to backstop any issues that may arise with the home, which in a lot of ways is a good thing," Cole said. "It there's a household that maybe has a catastrophic change with make-up or a health issue or job loss, and they aren't able to make payments that leads to the need to sell or get out of the situation, the land trust is there and has that first option to purchase the home, help that family move on and avoid a foreclosure and then resell the home to a new income eligible buyer."
The model has been successful in many places - community land trust homeowners often remain in their homes for at least five years. A community land trust can also be a stepping stone between renting and home ownership.
"There's a lot of flexibility in the model," Cole said.
In St. Louis, the 24:1 Community Land Trust has not only encouraged home ownership, it has also invested in a town center that includes a movie theater, grocery store and health care facility as a way to revitalize the community.
Attendees asked for details about how the land trust in Columbia functions and got started.
Cole recommended those interested in the possibility of a land trust in Callaway County analyze the needs of the community first. Any team looking to put together a land trust will have to understand local housing conditions and determine what sort of support there is in the community, Cole said. For example, are there any local banks that would lend for a community land trust home sale?
"You really need to think through all of the critical questions," he said.