20th Anniv. Campaign: Creating Affordable Homes, Strengthening Communities

Over the past 20 years, the Land Trust has helped nearly 250 households achieve the dream of owning homes of their own. In the process, we have transformed many vacant, garbage-strewn lots and substandard houses into quality, affordable homes that are both good for the families who buy them but also contribute to improvement of their respective neighborhoods. The fact that many of our strongest supporters are residents of the neighborhoods where we have done most of our work speaks to the multiple, positive impacts our work has had in the community.

Looking back on my 14 years with the Land Trust, I am most heartened that our commitment of creating forever affordable homes is a promise on which we are making good. To date, 52 homes have resold with all of them remaining affordable to the next buyers. Even more important, 80% of the sellers have moved on to market rate homeownership, meaning the shared equity homeownership of the Land Trust is acting as a stepping stone to even greater economic stability and vitality for many of the families we serve. The Land Trust’s forever affordable homes will benefit our community in this way for generations to come.

Of course, nothing I can say describes our work as well as the words of our homeowners. Krystal Wing, a recent Land Trust buyer, said, “The hardest thing was walking through so many houses in my price range and realizing that everything needed work. When I walked into this house, I got to here (indicating a spot two feet away from the door) and said, ‘This is it! This is my house!’ The more I saw of the house, the better it got.” Another recent homeowner, Bettina Keppers, said, “I’ve moved 11 times in the past 5 years. The Land Trust helped me put down roots.” The roots of which Bettina speaks are good for families who would otherwise experience too much transition. Likewise, they are good for neighborhoods with unhealthily low homeownership rates.

For those of you who are already supporters of the Land Trust, thank you for your support. It is absolutely integral to our success. I know you share our pride of 20 years of community ownership of land under our forever affordable homes, and I hope you will consider making an additional contribution this year to support our work. In this economy, your support is both more needed and appreciated than ever.

For those of you who have not made contributions to the Land Trust yet, I invite you to join in us in our work. In doing so, you will help people like Bettina and Krystal today who purchase our forever affordable homes, and you will help lay the foundation for the individuals and families in need of future generations have opportunities to achieve the dream of homeownership.