Tuesday, September 1, 2009<\/p>\n
By MICHAEL PERRAULT
\nThe Press-Enterprise<\/p>\n
Hemet officials may have a new tool next month to create affordable housing: a community land trust.<\/p>\n
Community land trusts are nonprofit, community-based housing organizations that acquire land through purchases or donations and hold it in perpetuity, said Rick Jacobus, an Oakland-based consultant hired to look into forming the land.<\/p>\n
The land is then leased to the homeowners for as long as 99 years, cutting the overall cost of homes and helping to promote affordable housing.<\/p>\n
The trust could also work with lenders to reduce mortgage costs by using equity of the land as part of the mortgage calculation.<\/p>\n
“By retaining ownership of the land, the city is sort of a silent partner,” Jacobus said.<\/p>\n
Hemet could screen potential homebuyers and tenants while ensuring homes are adequately maintained and occupied by working families instead of being bought up by investors, Jacobus said.<\/p>\n
Another option Hemet City Council may consider is joining forces with a non-profit affordable housing developer, said Adam Eliason, president of CivicStone, a Chino-based consulting firm that advises cities on how to develop affordable housing.<\/p>\n
Eliason and Jacobus have been asked to work the city’s housing authority to develop a business plan to boost affordable housing options, stabilize blighted neighborhoods and reduce absentee ownership.<\/p>\n
Hemet officials want to buy and fix up foreclosed properties and sell them to working families. The city plans to use nearly $3 million awarded by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program, said Mark Trabing, Hemet housing manager.<\/p>\n
Hemet has teamed up with Moreno Valley to apply for a second round of federal funding, Trabing said.<\/p>\n
The city council teamed up in July with two nonprofit housing groups to improve their chances of receiving about $10 million in additional federal Neighborhood Stabilization grants.<\/p>\n
Hemet is awaiting word whether it will receive about $3 million more to be used to purchase and renovate homes for resale, rent or redevelopment and to demolish blighted structures.<\/p>\n
Hemet’s land trust would likely be governed by a board of directors representing people who lease the land, as well as surrounding neighbors, public officials, nonprofit housing providers and social services.<\/p>\n
Land trusts have sprouted up in cities such as Madison, Wis., where teachers, police and other workers with modest, middle-class incomes were priced out of neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
A land trust could give Hemet a chance to be involved on an ongoing basis, helping neighborhoods break out of “boom and bust cycles” that have left residents facing foreclosures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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