How a community land trust provides affordable housing

BY WILL BRIGGS

As Madison leaders and developers seek to build the city’s stock of affordable housing, one nonprofit has sought to keep land affordable for community uses like housing and urban agriculture since 1991. The Madison Area Community Land Trust plans to add affordable housing through several projects in the next few years, including 12 townhomes on the Voit Farms property on Madison’s east side. Those projects are meant to build on more than five dozen homes already in the trust, which are kept affordable through a unique model.

This month marked a transition for the organization, with Mason Cavell taking over from Olivia Williams as the trust’s new executive director. The outgoing and incoming leaders recently sat down with the Cap Times to discuss the area’s housing needs and the nonprofit’s goals, and to answer the question: What is a land trust anyway?

The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.

What is your background, and how did you become interested in housing as an issue?

Cavell: I’m originally from Virginia. I come to Madison via New York and most recently Seattle. I’ve developed affordable housing and community facilities for the public development authority in New York City. I’ve worked for a nonprofit called Housing Works, and I’ve developed permanent supportive housing and health care facilities for homeless people.

My mom actually worked in affordable housing, along with a lot of influential people in my orbit that I looked up to. My first job out of grad school was managing a home improvement program for lowincome people in rural Virginia. That’s where I really started to see and understand the need for more affordable housing, and became more committed to the mission and the people. I also just love making buildings happen and creating great places for people.

Williams: I’m from Jacksonville, Florida. It’s a place with a lot of inequality and racial segregation that’s now seeing a lot of increase in property values and gentrification. I really got interested in community land trusts in graduate school at Florida State University, when I was doing a lot of research on gentrification and came across community land trusts as a tool for permanent affordability and for reducing the impacts of displacement as home values go up.

I finished in 2017 and ended up on the board of Madison Area Community Land Trust in 2019. Then I joined the staff side in 2020 as the executive director. I’m now beginning work as a freelance technical consultant for community land trusts nationally.

For people who are unfamiliar with them, what is a land trust?

Cavell: A community land trust is a nonprofit that preserves affordability of land for community use. The Madison Area Community Land Trust owns some agricultural land at Troy Gardens, but we primarily use the model for home ownership.

We start with an initial affordability investment. Historically, that has come from the city of Madison, but it could also be Dane County or a private philanthropic partner. That initial investment brings down the price of the home to what a low- to moderate-income buyer can afford.

We as the land trust retain ownership of the land, and the homeowner purchases the home only, so they’re able to get a mortgage on only the home. We use that ground lease to keep the home permanently affordable for future buyers.

The home buyer then agrees to “pay it forward” to the next buyer once they’re ready to sell. The home price increases modestly over time using a resale formula that we agree to at the outset.

What advantages do you see in the land trust model of housing?

Cavell: Low- to moderate-income residents are able to access home ownership where they would probably otherwise not be able to do so in the market and would otherwise be renting. We’re also able to help secure down payment assistance programs and help arrange financing to get a mortgage.

Additionally, we provide post-purchase support through our stewardship program, meaning we help them with maintenance and repairs. We help with things like winterization, foreclosure prevention, and then we can assist them through a refinancing or a future sale.

Statistically, land trust homeowners are much less likely to have a foreclosure or a default on a mortgage. They’re able to save a lot more than renters that earn typical incomes and build equity and wealth by having a mortgage instead of just paying rent.

Any investment in a (community land trustaffordable) home is permanent. Because the land trust holds that land permanently, we’re effectively freezing the value of the land forever. The home remains affordable for the next buyer, so any public investment is really carried forward to future buyers.

What plans does the land trust have for the future?

Cavell: Madison is getting a lot more expensive, and it’s getting harder to buy a home, even for middleincome residents, much less low-income people. There’s certainly a need for more variety of housing types for those who want to own.

We’re seeing it’s cheaper to build certain product types like attached townhomes more than your typical, conventional detached single-family home. So, we’re really exploring some more “missing middle” housing types. With some zoning changes and some increased density, we’re able to do more of those things.

Certainly, the Voit project sort of fits into that bucket. A big goal of mine is to see that through and start construction on that project next spring.

We want to provide home ownership opportunities typically for families making between about $50,000$80,000 per year. Given the median home sale price in Madison has gone over $450,000, our homes are priced between $180,000 for a two-bedroom and as high as high as $302,000 for a new three-bedroom home.

Williams: There are multiple projects in the works to develop our 100th home by 2030, so we’re on track with the things in the works to meet that goal or exceed it. We also have plans to develop our first homes outside the city of Madison within Dane County right now.

One of the goals in the Dane County Regional Housing Strategy last year was to increase community land trust home ownership specifically, so we’ve been able to find some partners, including Dane County itself. We’re looking to some of the communities in Dane County to help support that goal.

DAVID SANDELL

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF MADISON AREA COMMUNITY LAND TRUST

Above: Olivia Williams. Below: Mason Cavell.

One of the Madison Area Community Land Trust’s projects is to add a dozen townhomes at Voit Farm property, pictured here in 2005.