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Alan Hipps, Executive Director, Housing Assistance Program of Essex County
Challenge: With its vast forests, mountains, free-flowing rivers, the Adirondacks are a huge draw to those seeking beauty and outdoor recreation. As many of the affluent seek to secure a piece of this land for their own, the costs of homes are skyrocketing pricing out local long-term residents. The community is in crisis. How can a pool of affordable housing be maintained for these long-term residents?
Adirondack Park is an expansive and mountainous rural region about the size of neighboring Vermont with only a fraction of its population. The area is a magnet for outdoor recreation and is increasingly attractive to second-home buyers from more affluent areas less than a day’s drive away. The increasing demand on land and homes is pushing up the prices leaving many local residents unable to find affordable housing. Younger adults are forced to leave for more affordable areas as the local workforce – and with it the economy – evaporates. This market-driven gentrification presents an existential crisis for the small, economically challenged communities of the Adirondacks.
The Housing Assistance Program of Essex County has supported affordable, safe and energy-efficient housing for Adirondack Park residents since 1984. But now they needed to come up with an innovative, financially sustainable way to help local residents meet this growing challenge. HAPEC turned to the Community Land Trust model as a means of keeping at least a subset of Adirondack homes forever affordable.
A Land Trust balances the competing goals of providing a fair return on the owner’s investment while assuring that the home is kept affordable for future buyers. It achieves this by retaining ownership of the land on which the homes are built. Homebuyers get a deed to the house and a renewable, 99-year lease to the property, giving them most of the rights of traditional homeowners. They can even pass the home on to their immediate family members. The trust, however, retains ownership of the land and exercises control over any resale.
In 2007, HAPEC organized the Adirondack Community Housing Trust as an independent, not-for-profit corporation and recruited community leaders from across the Park to serve as the Trust’s board of directors. HAPEC provides staffing and administrative services under contract, but the board fully controls the Trust.
HAPEC executive director Alan Hipps worked closely with state Sen. Elizabeth “Betty” Little, R-Queensbury, to form the Adirondack Community Housing Trust (ACHT). With Little’s support, New York State provided $1 million to establish the Trust. Two generous philanthropists provided an additional $240,000.
The ACHT funds are used to reduce the cost of home purchases for income-qualified families across the Adirondacks who make up to 120 percent of the region’s median income. Resale limitations on the property require that future sales of these homes be controlled by ACHT so that they will be passed on to other income-qualified families at affordable prices in the years ahead.
To date, the ACHT has helped 17 families find affordable homes which are now part of the Trust.
“I don’t think we’d ever be able to afford a home without (the Trust),” said Adirondack resident Emily Goodspeed. She and her partner Derek now own a modest Trust home in North River where the couple is raising two school-aged children.
Like many Trust homebuyers, the Goodspeeds feel that the resale restrictions are a reasonable part of the arrangement. “We’re not going anywhere,” Goodspeed said. “And if we did sell the house, I’d want someone else like us to have it,” she added.
Trust homeowners pay modest lease fees which, together with transfer fees and property sales, provide revenue to offset the cost of running the Trust. HAPEC estimates that to be completely self-sustaining, the Trust will need to grow to at least 50 homes. But that day may not be too far off – there is a substantial waiting list of income-qualified families interested in buying, and New York State recently provided a second $1 million award to continue the program.
Another aspect of home affordability is, of course, the property taxes owners of Trust homes are required to pay on both the house and the leased land. The ACHT has worked closely with various agencies to insure that Trust homes are assessed for their value under their resale restrictions, not the potentially much higher value without the restrictions. This helps keep the tax bill affordable for the homeowner.
The success of the Trust model and its mission to provide affordable homes has had an impact on local decision making. Leaders in the village of Lake Placid recently approved an “Inclusionary Zoning” ordinance to require that 10 percent of all new subdivision lots in the community will be dedicated to the Land Trust to insure that at least some newly built homes will remain affordable for local residents. HAPEC has been tapped to help implement the ordinance.
HAPEC learned important lessons through this project: 1) the most critical lesson is that they must respond to the needs of homebuyers. In their sparsely-populated, very rural area, the location of the home, and its proximity to employers, is a prime concern. They had a home sit unoccupied for over a year even though it was gifted to them and they could sell it for any price that was affordable to the buyer; 2) to be financially self-sustaining, the Trust will need to approximately triple in size to 50 homes.
Challenge: With its vast forests, mountains, free-flowing rivers, the Adirondacks are a huge draw to those seeking beauty and outdoor recreation. As many of the affluent seek to secure a piece of this land for their own, the costs of homes are skyrocketing pricing out local long-term residents. The community is in crisis. How can a pool of affordable housing be maintained for these long-term residents?
Adirondack Park is an expansive and mountainous rural region about the size of neighboring Vermont with only a fraction of its population. The area is a magnet for outdoor recreation and is increasingly attractive to second-home buyers from more affluent areas less than a day’s drive away. The increasing demand on land and homes is pushing up the prices leaving many local residents unable to find affordable housing. Younger adults are forced to leave for more affordable areas as the local workforce – and with it the economy – evaporates. This market-driven gentrification presents an existential crisis for the small, economically challenged communities of the Adirondacks.
The Housing Assistance Program of Essex County has supported affordable, safe and energy-efficient housing for Adirondack Park residents since 1984. But now they needed to come up with an innovative, financially sustainable way to help local residents meet this growing challenge. HAPEC turned to the Community Land Trust model as a means of keeping at least a subset of Adirondack homes forever affordable.
A Land Trust balances the competing goals of providing a fair return on the owner’s investment while assuring that the home is kept affordable for future buyers. It achieves this by retaining ownership of the land on which the homes are built. Homebuyers get a deed to the house and a renewable, 99-year lease to the property, giving them most of the rights of traditional homeowners. They can even pass the home on to their immediate family members. The trust, however, retains ownership of the land and exercises control over any resale.
In 2007, HAPEC organized the Adirondack Community Housing Trust as an independent, not-for-profit corporation and recruited community leaders from across the Park to serve as the Trust’s board of directors. HAPEC provides staffing and administrative services under contract, but the board fully controls the Trust.
HAPEC executive director Alan Hipps worked closely with state Sen. Elizabeth “Betty” Little, R-Queensbury, to form the Adirondack Community Housing Trust (ACHT). With Little’s support, New York State provided $1 million to establish the Trust. Two generous philanthropists provided an additional $240,000.The ACHT funds are used to reduce the cost of home purchases for income-qualified families across the Adirondacks who make up to 120 percent of the region’s median income. Resale limitations on the property require that future sales of these homes be controlled by ACHT so that they will be passed on to other income-qualified families at affordable prices in the years ahead.
To date, the ACHT has helped 17 families find affordable homes which are now part of the Trust.
“I don’t think we’d ever be able to afford a home without (the Trust),” said Adirondack resident Emily Goodspeed. She and her partner Derek now own a modest Trust home in North River where the couple is raising two school-aged children.
Like many Trust homebuyers, the Goodspeeds feel that the resale restrictions are a reasonable part of the arrangement. “We’re not going anywhere,” Goodspeed said. “And if we did sell the house, I’d want someone else like us to have it,” she added.
Trust homeowners pay modest lease fees which, together with transfer fees and property sales, provide revenue to offset the cost of running the Trust. HAPEC estimates that to be completely self-sustaining, the Trust will need to grow to at least 50 homes. But that day may not be too far off – there is a substantial waiting list of income-qualified families interested in buying, and New York State recently provided a second $1 million award to continue the program.
Another aspect of home affordability is, of course, the property taxes owners of Trust homes are required to pay on both the house and the leased land. The ACHT has worked closely with various agencies to insure that Trust homes are assessed for their value under their resale restrictions, not the potentially much higher value without the restrictions. This helps keep the tax bill affordable for the homeowner.
The success of the Trust model and its mission to provide affordable homes has had an impact on local decision making. Leaders in the village of Lake Placid recently approved an “Inclusionary Zoning” ordinance to require that 10 percent of all new subdivision lots in the community will be dedicated to the Land Trust to insure that at least some newly built homes will remain affordable for local residents. HAPEC has been tapped to help implement the ordinance.
HAPEC learned important lessons through this project: 1) the most critical lesson is that they must respond to the needs of homebuyers. In their sparsely-populated, very rural area, the location of the home, and its proximity to employers, is a prime concern. They had a home sit unoccupied for over a year even though it was gifted to them and they could sell it for any price that was affordable to the buyer; 2) to be financially self-sustaining, the Trust will need to approximately triple in size to 50 homes.
