inFOCUS

Support for a community land trust, an innovative model for preserving affordable housing, is growing in Richmond during the current economic crisis.  The Richmond Equitable Development Initiative (REDI), in partnership with the City of Richmond, has been discussing the concept of a land trust that would buy vacant bank-owned properties.  As envisioned, the trust would then renovate the properties and sell the homes, but not the land, to lower-income families.

But key questions must be resolved before a land trust is born: How much will it cost? Where will seed money — estimated at $900,000 a year for eight years under one scenario — come from? How long will it be before a trust is self-sufficient? Who would oversee it?

REDI’s work has been funded in part through an Equitable Development Grant from the Association of Bay Area Governments.

Land trust as affordable housing gains ground in Richmond – ContraCostaTimes.com.