Feb. 8, 2022

The march toward affordable homes spawns much talk in Charlotte, but perhaps less action. One of the players taking action is the West Side Charlotte Land Trust.

Charis Blackmon, executive director, this morning explained some of the details of how the organization works. More details were added in the chat box, excerpts from which are below the video.

Land trusts are not new, not heavily used, and clearly hard to set up. Once in operation, however, they offer another avenue toward creating permanently affordable housing, particularly in neighborhoods at risk of gentrification.

Durham’s Durham Community Land Trustees began operation in 1987. The Asheville-Buncombe Community Land Trust, which was prompted by a 2014 study, opened an actual office only this January.

Additional information from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) is here.

 

From the chat box

Stephen Valder:

As Charis mentioned membership is open to everyone. If you live in the focus area, roughly zipcodes 28208, 28213, 28216, 28217, a minimum donation of $20 makes you a member, and eligible to be on the board and to vote in the annual meeting and for board members.

The Land trust’s website is www.westsideclt.org

The pricing formula the price as affordable at the area median income (AMI) of 60%. Then at resale the resale price is allowed to increase 2% a year. So, for example, a house that would sell for $400,000 might be sold for $180,000. The buyer would have minmal costs at closing. If held for 10 years the price would roughly rise to $200,000.

The household income hs to be between 60%-80% of AMI.

All paid off equity is returned to the owneer. That would include any down payment assistance that is forgiven if it was given to the owner.

Charis Blackmon:

Feel free to reach out with any further questions. My email address is [email protected]