Habitat for Humanity creates Virginia’s first community land trust

RICHMOND, Va. -- Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity has created the first community land trust in Virginia, which the nonprofit hails as a landmark moment in the history of affordable housing in the state.

The local chapter has placed a parcel of land for 19 homes off Springs Road in South Richmond into the trust.

In a community land trust, a buyer purchases only the house -- not the land -- keeping costs down.

At the South Richmond site, some houses will be sold to workers with low incomes, others to people with moderate incomes. Other houses in there will be sold at market value, ensuring a mixed-income neighborhood.

Because the land will be owned by the trust, homebuyers will lease the land for a nominal fee and take out mortgages for less than what it would cost if they were to buy the land and the house.

"This is very big in our community development world," said Leisha LaRiviere, president and CEO of Richmond Habitat, at a conference announcing the trust yesterday at Williams Mullen law firm in Richmond.

"All eyes of Habitat International are on this project. It will be one of the top 10 mixed-income communities in the country."

In effect, a community land trust offers affordability in perpetuity, she said. It offsets rising land values and property taxes, keeping houses affordable for service workers such as police officers, nurses and teachers.

People who decide to move after buying into a community land trust will sell their houses back to the trust. They will gain a return on their investments, but not as much had they bought and sold at market value.

If a community land trust had been in place for Habitat communities built in the last couple of years, it would have saved each homeowner about $41,000 to $50,000, LaRiviere said.

It's a win-win for everyone, including Habitat, which can use the trust as an asset to develop more properties, she said. Randy and Meade Welch of Glendale Homes, a real estate development company, donated the land for the first trust.

Had a trust been in place and widely used in the area, the region would not have been hit as hard by foreclosures.

The average foreclosure rate in community land trusts across the country is 0.52 percent compared with 3.3 percent for market-rate houses, said John Moeser, a Habitat board member and a senior fellow at the University of Richmond's Bonner Center for Civic Engagement.

A community land trust can be applied to new development -- as the one here is -- to blighted neighborhoods and to gentrified neighborhoods where people are forced to leave because they can't afford rising taxes, Moeser said.

A trust enables people to stay in their neighborhoods, he said. It helps stabilize neighborhoods and reduces absentee ownership.

What's more, it can be a boon for small businesses, because they also can participate and reduce expenses by not owning land.

Laura Lafayette, chief executive officer of the Richmond Association of Realtors and a Habitat board member, said the need for affordable housing is still great even though housing prices nationally and locally have fallen.

"What we at Habitat want is to build communities of opportunity -- attractive, well-built homes that line safe streets and feed into good schools," she said.

Contact Carol Hazard at (804) 775-8023 or .