Community land trust model could grow in St. Lucie County amid affordable-housing shortage
PORT ST. LUCIE — A pilot program of six affordable homes, overseen by the Community Land Trust of Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast, has seen success and may soon be expanded in Port St. Lucie and elsewhere.
In 2022, the city began selling affordable homes to qualified applicants in a program overseen by the nonprofit Community Land Trust, which ensures that future sales remain at affordable prices, Deputy Director of Neighborhood Services Alex Tasca said.
The program comes amidst a difficult landscape for those in St. Lucie County in need of affordable housing, with too little supply and a Section 8 wait list that has been closed for nine years.
Success with first six
In the past, designated affordable housing often was sold without such requirements, Tasca said. The houses would then often be sold later at a higher price, and the investment into affordable housing would be lost after just one owner. Under the Community Land Trust system, Tasca said, a subsequent sale must be at an "affordable" price and it must go to another qualifying household.
"A community land trust means that the investment, grant investment (or) private investment, in that particular housing project does not just serve one household or one family and then is lost to the market," Tasca said. "It remains an investment long-term for the community and the city."
With its experience in running these types of programs, Port St. Lucie brought in the Community Land Trust of Palm Beach County to oversee the six properties it had purchased.
"We had success with the first six. It was great. We got the households in there. They are very thankful," Tasca said. "Those properties will always be maintained and looked after. The true success is adding to that inventory."
Selection process
There's a shortage of affordable housing In Port St. Lucie, across the Treasure Coast and in much of the country.
That leads to a higher demand for affordable homes — like the six in Port St. Lucie — than there is supply, Tasca said.
"Most of the time the demand is much higher than the supply, so when we opened the application for our six homes, we got over 400 applicants. We had to do a lottery. That's how it works most of the time," Tasca said.
Sales are limited to households with an maximum income no more than 80% of the area's median income. The area median income is determined by the federal government. In St. Lucie County, it's $84,800, meaning the 80% maximum is set at $67,840, according to Fannie Mae's AMI lookup tool.
The six new homeowners purchased the homes at prices adjusted to their household incomes and utilized bank loans, Tasca said.
Expanding across the area
The community land trust model already has begun expanding across St. Lucie County, Tasca said. She pointed to Habitat for Humanity of St. Lucie County, which recently adopted it for the homes it builds.
"It is considered now, by the state, to be a best practice because it's a way of retaining the affordable-housing subsidies and investments long-term in the community, as opposed to losing them to the market," Tasca said.
Further expansion possible
The purchase of properties to go into community land trusts typically is done with grant funds, Tasca said, so it can be hard to predict when additional homes may be acquired.
"We stay up to date with all available grants, and do what we can when we can," Tasca said.
Currently, Port St. Lucie, Fort Pierce and St. Lucie County are awaiting results of a Housing Needs Assessment and Implementation Plan that the three entities jointly commissioned from consulting firm TPMA Inc., of Indianapolis.
On Jan. 16, TPMA Director of Housing and Community Development Aaron Finley gave presentations to both Port St. Lucie and Fort Pierce leaders, during which he cited the growing need for affordable housing in the area. In general, Finley said, housing demand across St. Lucie County is expected to more than double in the next 10 years.
More: High rent, housing prices keep Port St. Lucie millennials, Gen Zers living with parents
Among his recommendations was a study of how Fort Pierce uses the land it already owns.
"As we're watching Port St. Lucie join the Community Land Trust from Palm Beach," Finley said, we know that there have been successes with Habitat for Humanity in the area using a community land trust model."
Fort Pierce could join Port St. Lucie in working with a community land trust, Finley said, by working with the Habitat for Humanity community land trust; "the development of a new community land trust"; or "potentially continuing to join in with an existing one as we've seen in Port St. Lucie."
Fort Pierce spokesperson Kaitlyn Ballard did not say whether the city has plans to join the Community Land Trust of Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast.
"Currently, the city of Fort Pierce has not joined the Palm Beach Community Land Trust," Ballard wrote in an email. said. "More information will be provided as it becomes available."
Wicker Perlis is TCPalm's Watchdog Reporter for St. Lucie County. You can reach him at wicker.perlis@tcpalm.com and 504-331-0516.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Port St. Lucie using land trust as affordable housing remains scarce
