A Community Approach to Affordable Housing

From UFE's February 2008 Enews

In their article "A foreclosure-free option," Responsible Wealth member, David Abromowitz, and his colleague Roz Greenstein discuss the use of Community Land Trusts (CLTs) to provide a community-based alternative to subprime mortgages as a way for low-income folks to become and remain homeowners.

In essence, the land trust "lends" houses to residents while remaining owner of the land. In Roxbury, Massachusetts, a neighborhood of Boston, more than 400 new homes now occupy once distressed or abandoned property, and the land trust is able to make sure that those houses are provided to low-income workers. The houses can be sold for profit, but not windfall, and the CLT stands as a steward for the community in establishing deals with banks and making mortgages work fairly.

Read Abromowitz and Greenstein's op-ed in the Boston Globe.

More about how CLTs are helping in Boston.

Background on CLTs and how they can address housing issues.

See the full Enews for February 2008.