Community Land Trusts
How the community land trust model works

There are essentially two types of land trusts: conservation trusts, which acquire and protect open space and agricultural land; and community land trusts (CLTs), which tend to focus more on housing and community development. Missoula and the surrounding areas have a number of conservation trusts to protect open space and agricultural land, but only the North Missoula Community Development Corporation uses the Community Land Trust to create permanently affordable housing. So how does it all work?

Community land trusts purchase land with existing housing or construct new housing on vacant land that the land trust purchases. The land trust then sells the improvements (structures) on the land to low- and moderate-income homebuyers. In addition to owning the home the homeowner leases the land at a modest monthly cost from the land trust. The renewable lease runs for seventy-five year periods. The homeowner can sell the home at any time or can will the home to heirs. When the owner is ready to sell, a formula based, equity equation or resale formula , is applied to ensure that the home stays affordable for the next owner. All Land Stewardship Program homebuyers must be first time homeowners who earn less than 80-percent of the area median income .