AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND CLIMATE GOALS NOT SEPARATE ISSUES

By Erica Bartlett

Most of us have explored Maine’s great outdoors at a conservation land trust, where the land’s wild character is conserved. A community land trust (CLT), though it sounds similar, focuses on conserving the affordability of home ownership so that community members with lower incomes aren’t priced out of the market. In Maine, CLTs are active in Waterville, Portland, Monroe, Mount Desert Island, Greene, North Haven and the Orland region.

The Waterville Community Land Trust (WCLT) was formed in 2014 with the goal of providing affordable homes to low income households. They are working on their third project now, with the goal of rejuvenating a neighborhood that has been suffering from neglect. WCLT hopes to encourage economic development in the area and boost community engagement.

As Nancy Williams, co-founder of WCLT, explains, “Renovating a few houses in the area encourages others to do the same, making the community more stable and desirable.”

When WCLT is finished renovating the houses, they will each be sold to a low-income resident, defined as someone who makes 80% or less of the area median income in Waterville. Per WCLT’s homeowner education packet, for a household of one, 80% of the area median income is $34,650, and the amount increases based on the number of people in the household.

WCLT can do this because of the unique approach taken by CLTs.

What makes CLTs different?

To make housing affordable, CLTs take the value of the land out of the equation. “When properties increase in value, they often become unaffordable to many groups and populations,” Williams says. “And the lack of affordability is often because of the land.”

To address this problem, CLTs purchase the land and then lease it to the homeowners. Since the homeowners are buying just the house, not the land, the purchase price is significantly lower. This allows low-income households to become homeowners when they may not have been able to otherwise.

The homes remain “perpetually affordable” because when a homeowner sells, they sell at a restricted price. The specifics may differ per CLT, but the resale price usually returns the homeowner’s equity earned on the house and a certain percentage of the appreciated value.

As the name implies, CLTs also focus on community connections. In Waterville, for instance, WCLT has a goal to engage community members, including teens, to help with a community garden and staff a farm stand to sell local produce.

Community members are also involved in governance. Typically, one-third of the governing board represents individuals who qualify to own a CLT home, one-third is other community members, and the remaining one-third is made up of stakeholders and experts such as city planners. This allows those in the community to share their insights and become acquainted.

CLTs and Maine’s climate goals

Although community land trusts don’t have a sustainability focus by design, it’s up to each CLT community to set its own goals. WCLT is committed to upgrading the efficiency of each home it renovates. This includes replacing windows, adding insulation and replacing old plaster where needed, adding spray foam insulation in the basement, and updating appliances to newer, more energy-efficient models. Waterville Community Land Trust is also exploring heat pump options.

“Low-income residents often shoulder a higher energy burden and pay a much higher percentage of their incomes to meet home energy needs,” says Kathleen Meil, Director of Policy and Partnerships at Maine Conservation Voters. “That makes weatherization and energy efficiency key tools to support perpetually affordable housing as well as decrease carbon pollution.”

Greater Portland Community Land Trust (GPCLT), founded in 2013, is taking a different approach with their first project at 21 Randall Street. Rather than renovating existing homes, they’re planning to build a new three-level complex that will include 13 units of affordable, energy-efficient housing and open space for the residents to share.

Since GPCLT is building new, they have more options to design for efficiency from the beginning. “From day one, we were looking at building to Passive House levels,” says Scott Vonnegut, GPCLT chairman. Solar panels will help lower utility costs even more.

These efforts align with Maine’s climate goals, but CLTs also support those goals in other ways.

One of the goals of Maine’s newly adopted Climate Action Plan is to “avoid the impacts and costs of inaction,” which includes ensuring that “our people, environment, economy, and society are more resilient to the impacts of climate change that are now occurring.”

Community land trusts are well-equipped to build economic resilience. During the recession in 2008, foreclosures on CLT homeowners were significantly lower than other homeowners. “That’s partly because we work with owners to maintain relationships and we know when they may be having troubles, and we’re here to help,” Williams says.

In addition to resilience, CLTs support the Maine’s Climate Action Plan goals of fostering economic opportunity and prosperity and advancing equity through Maine’s climate response. As the plan states, “the costs of Maine’s inaction on climate change will be acutely borne by vulnerable, lower-income communities, which are least able to recover from a disruption.” Providing a path to homeownership is one of the most recognized tools for lifting lower-income residents out of poverty.

Community land trusts alone cannot solve the affordable housing problems in Maine. But they can provide workforce housing for lower income working families who would otherwise be priced out of homeownership. In the process, they help bring communities together, improve resiliency, and provide more efficient and affordable home options, all of which will help the state get one step closer to achieving its climate goals.

This article appeared in the Spring 2021 edition of Green & Healthy Maine HOMES. Subscribe today!

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