Land trusts help local residents find housing in sought-after communities

The eclectic city of Yellow Springs and Cincinnati with its Midwestern charm, make them both desirable cities to live in. Despite this there are affordability and availability issues that make it difficult to for some hopeful residents to find housing. In both cities, land trusts are making it possible by establishing certain properties to be permanently affordable. 

For more information on land trusts click here.  

A Home, 30 years in the planning 

Valerie Chronis-Bickett didn’t waste any time when a home became available in a neighborhood in Yellow Springs. “With the desire I had to live here, I didn’t question when a house became available.” said the retired teacher. The moment the home became available she exclaimed, “We’re moving in here!” 
Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, Bickett has desired to live in the Yellow Springs Community since the late 1990’s. Bickett, currently in her 70’s, said that her two oldest children graduated from the private liberal arts college in Yellow Springs called Antioch College. During her family’s frequent trips to either drop off, pick up, or visit her kids, Bickett increasingly became fond of the area. 
“ I fell in love with the geography, fell in love with the town. But we realized we couldn’t afford it”. 

Over the years she participated in the Yellow Springs neighborhood events, grew more accustomed to the area, and even made multiple attempts to bid on homes but all of those efforts fell through. Yellow Springs is a competitive housing market with homes selling for the median prices of $450,000.  Those numbers made Bickett’s dreams of attaining a home in Yellow Springs out of reach, until a home became available in the early 2020’s that fit her budget…that she moved in to with her husband Tim and adult son Valentine. It was all made possible because of Yellow Springs Home Inc.  

Community Land Trust 

Yellow Springs Home, Inc. (Home, Inc.) provides permanently affordable and sustainable housing through their Community Land Trust (CLT). The CLT is a housing model that makes homes more affordable because the cost of the land is not included in the purchasing price of the home. 

Emily Siebel, Executive Director of Home Inc., says that as a membership organization, Home, Inc. is able to take land that they own and put it into a trust that has community governance. “We’re preserving public subsidies for the for the greater good. And we’re thinking generations ahead because land is very powerful…” said Seibel. 

The nonprofit organization has been operating since 1995 in response to the rising housing costs during that time. Currently they have about 40 homes in their portfolio that provides affordable housing to about 80+ residents.  

Not only does the land trust help the residents but it also helps the community. According to the organization their land trust brings in about $100,000 in annual property tax revenue to support local schools. Additionally, they have invested 7 million dollars in nearly the last three decades.  

Siebel says that some residents who make the median income can’t afford the median sale price. The housing that Home, Inc. creates fills in a large gap in the housing market while those residents contribute to the overall community. In regard to impact, they “factor in property tax revenue because we think it’s important to pay our share to invest in the community’s prosperity” says Siebel.  

In the neighborhood where Bickett lives  there are 20 houses. Six of them are affordable houses under the Home, Inc. land trust. Sixteen are market-rate housing. Bickett says that is unique in a place like Yellow Springs where housing prices continue to rise. Regardless of the different price points and the community being mixed income, the land trust homes fit seamlessly in every community. 

Also, the post-purchase support Home, Inc. provides is one of the contributing factors to their zero foreclosures since the organizations’ existence. This fact supports the national study from the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University that shows homes in a land trust foreclose less than traditional homes.  
 

Land trusts’ success depend by the region and every organization can approach theirs differently such as Cincinnati’s Renting Partnerships. 

Alternative Land Trust 

Renting Partnerships, offers land trusts in different properties around the city of Cincinnati. They have properties in North Avondale, Avondale and College Hill neighborhoods. As could be figured by the name of the organization, instead of using a land trust to provide affordable homeownership, Renting Partnerships uses land trusts to provide affordable renting.  

Margery Spinney, co-founder of the nonprofit organization, says that although land trusts make the home more affordable by reducing the cost of the land, that model still bars people who don’t have enough to pay a down deposit as a homeowner would. “We are focused on the people that need to rent because they don’t have the resources to put together a down payment, or they may not be able to get a mortgage loan” says Spinney.  
In addition to that, renting partnerships give renters an opportunity to build their own resources. Each renter signs a rental agreement that entails some responsibilities (we’ll explain the agreement later). A part of the rental agreement allows residents to earn credits each year they are living on the land trust property. After ten years residents earn up to $10,000 in credits. In five years residents may withdraw funds as an emergency savings and/or continue to earn credits.  

The organization touts that this model will help narrow the gap in wealth between households that own real estate and those that don’t 

Another key factor that makes this model work is that each renter participates in cooperative management.  Instead of having a staff that handles maintenance around the property, each tenant is responsible for work assignments such as mowing the lawn, laundry room maintenance, front entrance maintenance and more of the property they live in. The cooperative management is part of the Rental Equity Agreement each tenant must fulfill to earn credit. 

This type of agreement is what attracted one of the Renting Partnerships tenant Lisa Joylynn “Joy” Brown.  

Hard Work Pays Off 

Brown is a single mother of five kids and was looking to move out of their previous residence for a better environment. “My children and I were praying for two years straight for, new home. We were living in a duplex, and it was a lovely place, but it wasn’t home. And I just wanted somewhere for them to have more room and be able to be outside,” said Brown.  

Brown is a self-employed interior painter and was seeking to find a place that met her budget. She was approached about Renting Partnerships and was attracted to the team aspect of the land trust. She decided to become a tenant once there was a space available. She and her family moved into a Renting Partnerships property in the College Hill neighborhood that has enough land for her kids to play around. The land trust model also showed to be a great example for her children.  

“The kids can see that hard work pays off. As a mother, I’m always teaching them and telling them there’s always great consequences and benefits of working hard. So that was really exciting for me.” 

Brown aspires to own a home one day with a farm big enough for animals and a garden but she says with the economy at its current state, renting is more realistic for her family. Being a part of Renting Partnerships allows her to navigate her situation year by year. In the meanwhile her space is enough. 

Expansion 

Both land trust models are hoping to expand their land trusts to increase the amount of affordable housing in their respective areas. 

Yellow Springs Home Inc. is currently working on a senior development about a half a mile south of downtown Yellow Springs. Here is a link to the details of the project. 

Renting Partnerships is working on a ten-unit apartment building in the North Avondale neighborhood. Details about this project can be found here.  

Hernz Laguerre Jr. – Multi-Media Journalist

Hernz is a Haitian American who was born and raised in Spring Valley, NY. He attended school at S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, where he learned to hone his skills as a storyteller. After graduating with his Bachelors in Broadcast and Digital Journalism and his Masters in Television Radio and Film, he went on to a career in media as a producer, reporter and freelance videographer for companies like ESPN and Court TV. He eventually moved to Detroit, where he worked as a Multimedia Journalist for The Detroit News and then the NPR affiliate, WDET, before starting his work with the Brick by Brick team at CET and Think^TV. Hernz aims to produce stories that tell the bigger picture while doing his due diligence to educate and inform the public about the solutions-focused work being done in the Cincinnati and Dayton areas.