Land trust model for affordable housing

Affordable housing activists are proposing a potentially controversial solution to create more affordable housing in Evanston and they are inviting interested persons to participate in the discussion.  The community land trust model envisioned by the founder of and the current Board of the Citizens’ Lighthouse Community Land Trust would place private lands into a public trust that would be designated for affordable homes.

The model has been used in at least twenty-eight states to create permanently affordable housing, something that often eludes municipalities investing tax dollars into affordable housing strategies.  Evanston currently has few strategies to guarantee that its subsidized homes remain affordable. Once a home is resold, the city-designated subsidy is often lost and the home returns to market rate.

Community land trust advocates, such as Evanston resident Mary Ellen Tamasy, current executive director of Housing Opportunity Development Corporation and former director of Highland Park’s community land trust; Bill Howard, executive director of  the First Community Land Trust of Chicago; and Kevin Jackson, executive director of the Chicago Rehabilitation Network, will address the land trust's public annual meeting at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 6, on how the land trust can move effectively to provide affordable homes today and for the next generation of Evanstonians.

The meeting wil be held in the One Calvin Circle building at Presbyterian Homes, 3200 Grant St.

"While planning for an Evanston community land trust has been underway for several years by community residents, we’re finally ready to build a portfolio of properties to provide affordable homeownership in Evanston," Wilfred Gadsden, the executive director of the land trust, says.

"Given the turtle’s pace at which Evanston’s community planning process has dealt with the decline in affordability of homes in the community, we felt it was necessary to bring in people who can show that this particular model is being used effectively in other Illinois cities, and is one that saves taxpayer dollars in the long haul. This meeting will galvanize the efforts and coordinate the work of many volunteers in the community," he added.