Community Land Trust Resource Center: Public Policy Archives

Taxation of Resale Restricted Housing

This paper by Carla Robinson for the Lincoln Institute presents information about the treatment of shared-equity housing in five states: California; Massachusetts; New Jersey; New York; and Vermont. The findings suggest that restrictions placed on owner-occupied, shared-equity homes and the consideration of those restrictions in the valuation of the homes can be part of a comprehensive approach to develop and preserve affordable housing.[More]

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Video: Asset Building and Affordable Homeownership

Homeownership has historically offered the best asset building strategy available to middle class american families. But homeownership has changed and is no longer available to many moderate income households. Local government programs that seek to make ownership affordable however frequently choose to limit the price that homeowners can sell for in order to preserve affordability for future buyers. But affordability protections are sometimes opposed by those who want to encourage homeowner wealth building. These debates are really about the very purpose of affordable homeownership programs. This 15 minute video presentation looks more closely at local affordable homeownership programs from the point of view of asset building. Can affordable ownership programs be seen as asset building strategies? How do they compare with traditional ownership?[More]

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The City-CLT Partnership

1395_CLT PFR Cover LoRes.jpg Based on a review of three dozen municipal programs and in-depth interviews with local officials and CLT practitioners, this report describes the mechanisms and methods that cities across the country are using to structure their investment in CLT startups, projects, and operations. In addition to describing the full range of options for providing municipal support, the report highlights specific model practices for rendering that assistance.[More]

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Shared Equity Homeownership

Over a year ago, the National Housing Institute (NHI) launched an on-going investigation of three models of housing tenure that use durable contractual controls to perpetuate the occupancy, eligibility, and affordability of homes that are owned and occupied by low- and moderate-income households: the community land trust, the limited-equity cooperative, and deed restricted housing with covenants lasting 30 years or more. The findings are contained in a new report authored by Burlington Associates founder John Emmeus Davis entitled Shared Equity Homeownership: the Changing Landscape of Resale-Restricted, Owner-Occupied Housing. [More]

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Community Land Trusts Come of Age

In the April 2006 edition of "My View", Kim Herman, Executive Director of the Washington State Housing Finance Commission, provides an inside perspective on the growth and success of community land trusts in the state of Washington. This 8-page publication...[More]

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Property Taxes

The State of Vermont recently revised its statutes on the taxation of resale-restricted residential property. City and town assessors are required to take account of affordability covenants in valuing and taxing owner-occupied and renter-occupied dwellings. Click here to download a copy of the pertinent section of the revised Vermont statutes [More]

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Vermont Housing Subsidy Covenants

Copy of the Vermont state statute sanctioning "housing subsidy covenants" that run with the land and permanently preserve the affordability of publicly-subsidized, privately-owned housing. Click here to download pertinent section of Vermont statutes regarding "housing subsidy covenants"...[More]

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CLTs and Land Banks

There are similarities between Community Land Trusts and Municipal Land Banks, but there are also significant differences. Offered here in a one-page chart is a side-by-side comparison of CLTs and Land Banks. Click here to download this comparison between CLTs...[More]

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Bellingham Washington Permanently Affordable Housing Ordinance

In November 2004, the City of Bellingham, Washington, passed an innovative ordinance, creating a "permanently affordable housing" demonstration project. Through this ordinance, density of up to 50% of the otherwise allowed density will be granted if 100% of the dwelling...[More]

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CLTs and Other Affordability Restrictions Mechanisms

Community land trusts are not the only mechanism used to maintain long-term affordability restrictions on housing made affordable through the use of public and/or private subsidies. Here is a comparison of the three major approaches - deed restrictions, mortgages and...[More]

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CLTs and Property Taxes

In CLT homeownership, all property taxes are paid by the CLT homeowner. The challenge in the price-restricted, limited-equity domain of the CLTs is to determine how property taxes will be assessed fairly. A wide range of responses have been developed...[More]

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Understanding Subsidy Retention: A Flash Animation

This flash animation, designed by Rick Jacobus, dramatically demonstrates the merits of "subsidy retention" as a preferred policy for investing public dollars in affordable housing. The argument illustrated in this presentation is that Community Land Trusts, like other models of shared equity homeownership, are effective in locking public subsidies into each home that is sold, ensuring a stock of permanently affordable housing. This is an improvement over the housing investment policies of most cities and states that either allow homeowners to pocket public subsidies when reselling their assisted homes or require the recapture of public subsides so they may be re-loaned to other low-income households in the future. [More]

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Federal Definition of a Community Land Trust

On October 5, 1992, Congress defined what a community land trust is and how it is structured. Cliok here to download the federal definition of a community land trust...[More]

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