Jacksonville launches Community Land Trust amid affordable housing crisis

Affordable housing inventory may start to tick up with a new program in Jacksonville.

Mayor Lenny Curry announced the launch of the Jacksonville Community Land Trust and its inaugural board of directors during a press conference Thursday morning.

The trust is meant to help facilitate homeownership for families in lower-income brackets. Curry called homeownership a “critical building block to generational wealth” in his introduction and said the launch has been a year in the making.

Community land trust strategies can be implemented differently depending on market conditions, housing needs and funding.

Whether selling, buying or renting: Here's your guide to Jacksonville's housing market

Other options: Jacksonville apartment complex boosts affordable housing options for homeless veterans

An ongoing problem: Activists decry rent increases, evictions and lack of affordable housing in Jacksonville

In Jacksonville, the JCLT will own and lease the land to a homebuyer on a long-term basis to ensure it remains affordable by removing the cost of the land from the property’s price. JCLT will start out with a $250,000 budget.

While this limits the real estate profit a homeowner can make, the home still will appreciate as market values go up and improvements are made.

Curry introduced the first JCLT board chairman, Steve Kelley, who is also the downtown real estate and development director for the city’s Downtown Investment Authority.

Kelley said the JCLT has one mission: to create new homeownership options for low- and moderate-income families and individuals in Jacksonville. He said this will “improve neighborhood stability, promote economic development and build wealth while preserving affordable homes for future generations.”

Land trusts find home in Jacksonville

Community land trusts are not a new idea in the U.S., with about 225 communities of this type already in existence, according to Grounded Solutions Network.

This type of program already exists in other areas in Florida, too, like Palm Beach County, where the community land trust received its nonprofit designation in 2007.

It is possible, Kelley said, for the JCLT to venture into other acquisitions in addition to lots, such as evolving into rental or commercial properties, but that is not the immediate focus.

“We’re starting off with the most basic one, single-family residences,” he said.

The Florida Housing Coalition has worked closely with JCLT board members on the training and technical assistance needed to get it started, said Chief Programs Officer and Technical Adviser Ashon Nesbitt.

Something unique about the JCLT program, Nesbitt said, is that the trust is at the same level as city departments when it comes to first right of refusal on properties, meaning it will have the opportunity to look at them first.

More information about homeownership and the JCLT program will be presented at an open house July 19 at 5:30 p.m. at Beaver Street Enterprise Center, 1225 W. Beaver St. The event also will be streamed on the JCLT Facebook page.

Long road ahead for those in need of housing

Joy Hervey, manager and principal consultant at Genesis Solutions, said JCLT is still developing criteria for what makes an acquisition a good fit for the program.

Kelley said the hope is to acquire lots around Jacksonville, but the ones most likely to be obtained first are in North Jacksonville. The goal is to acquire four lots by the end of the year, he said, and it would be ideal to see construction underway by January 2023.

Builders partnered with JCLT will be the ones to develop and build on the lots, and there is not yet an anticipated date for when the first family will be able to move into one of these homes.

Homeowners hoping to purchase on a JCLT lot still will need to go through the traditional mortgage process, with the only differences being the lower price tag for the home and the lease. It will be up to mortgage underwriters to determine a potential buyer's eligibility.

A long-term solution like a community land trust won’t be able to offer quick assistance to people struggling with affordable housing and rent right now.

“There is the immediate crisis, and this is the process of land development,” Nesbitt said. “For someone today, of course, it’s not going to address their issue at this very moment. Over time, [it will] build up the inventory of affordable housing so that in situations like what we’re currently in, there will be more affordable options available for folks.”

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry announces Community Land Trust