courtesy of RMHFH

Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity (RMHFH) announced on Tuesday, Nov. 17, the launch of Virginia’s first Community Land Trust – a landmark moment in the history of affordable housing in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  The RMHFH Community Land Trust (CLT) task force made the historic announcement today at a press conference hosted by RMHFH’s Board of Directors and Williams Mullen Law Firm, in the presence of community leaders, elected officials, and local business leaders.

The new CLT model represents a community development strategy that offers affordability in perpetuity for homeowner families. Long term benefits for the community include the revitalization of blighted neighborhoods; the rejuvenation of small community-based businesses; and reduced neighborhood gentrification now, and in the future. The CLT makes home ownership affordable and provides an effective means of asset building for low-income families by stabilizing a neighborhood that is experiencing disinvestment and absentee ownership - a driving force behind absentee investors. A CLT is also useful in declining neighborhoods as it prevents community investment outside the community and preserves federal, state, and local funding in perpetuity. 

The CLT also prevents neighborhood gentrification and stabilizes older neighborhoods experiencing an uptick in redevelopment, so that long-time residents with limited incomes are not forced out of their homes. It accomplishes this by helping to offset escalating land values, and consequent higher property taxes, and by keeping mortgages affordable for future homebuyers in low to moderately-low income brackets, as the CLT maintains control of the land. The CLT also enables a changing neighborhood to benefit from the investment of newly arriving higher income residents who are providing much-needed revitalization and other community engagement in schools, libraries, and other local institutions.

The CLT offers a unique tool in the development of new mixed-income and mixed-use communities by insuring that affordable housing is interspersed with market rate homes. In addition, it allows small stores and business to thrive and become more of an economic boon to the neighborhood through increased revenue streams, and provides a quicker return on start-up investment, as the land expense is extracted from the development equation. A CLT invites self-sustenance and more reinvestment within the CLT itself, as more economic activity begins to occur.

High land acquisition costs and the critical need for new affordable, workforce housing and the revitalization of blighted neighborhoods led the RMHFH Board of Directors to adopt a revised strategic plan on July 16, 2008. The result has been a strategic shift in operations to build higher density neighborhood developments; offer new product designs in its construction portfolio; implement sustainable, green building methods; and expand its program to include the rehabilitation of existing homes in areas targeted for revitalization by each jurisdiction. The revised plan also included RMHFH’s commitment to create and introduce by 2012 a new, operational Community Land Trust (CLT) that would revolutionize affordable housing in the region. The intent was to create a fully functional CLT model to share with communities across the nation.

A CLT task force, comprised of RMHFH Board members, land use specialists, and community development leaders, was formed in February 2009 to implement this vision. On November 5, 2009, the CLT Task force presented its report to the RMHFH Board of Directors, three years ahead of schedule. The Board unanimously voted to place 19 parcels of property on Springs Road and $10,000 of RMHFH Board-dedicated funds into the new CLT program – indicating to the community their collective belief in and support of the CLT initiative. The Springs Road parcel, donated to RMHFH in December of 2007 by Randy and Meade Welch of Glendale Homes, represents the first land parcel placed into a Virginia-based land trust. The land gift allows RMHFH to pilot the first CLT with significantly decreased start up costs, providing the fiscal flexibility needed to launch this bold initiative.

The RMHFH CLT, located on Springs Road in the City of Richmond, will be developed as a “mixed income” community. One third of the homebuyers will be RMHFH partner families (with incomes in the 30-60% area median income (AMI)), another third in the 60-80% AMI bracket, and the final third purchased by families whose incomes fall into the above 80% AMI category, or market rate homebuyers.

Bylaws and articles of incorporation for the new RMHFH CLT were created through the collective efforts of the CLT task force and Williams Mullen attorneys John Easter, land use specialist, and G. Andrew Nea, Jr., RMHFH’s Pro Bono Counsel.

“This is our gift to the development community. By sharing our knowledge and working documents of the RMHFH CLTs with other organizations, we will expand our collective and collaborative mission to create safe and affordable housing far beyond the six jurisdictional service areas of Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity,” stated Leisha G. LaRiviere, President & CEO of Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity.

To that end, working blueprints for RMHFH’s new community development model, including financing models, grounds lease rates, bylaws, articles of incorporation, and more, will be available for review on the RMHFH Web site at http://www.richmondhabitat.org.

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