Overview
  • Overview
  • Increasing Housing Supply
  • Dedicated Funding Sources
  • Land Use Regulation and Approval Reforms
  • Inclusionary Zoning
  • Regional Housing Target Enforcement
  • Ending and Preventing Homelessness
  • Systems-Level Racial Equity Analysis
  • Emergency Response Resources
  • Housing First
  • Master Leasing
  • Household and Community Protections
  • “Just Cause” Eviction Laws
  • Anti-Gouging Rent Regulations
  • Strategic Code Enforcement
  • Community Benefit Agreements
  • Community Power-Building
  • Community Ownership
  • Alliance and Coalition Building
  • Community Organizing
  • Tenant Organizing
  • Opportunity and Wealth
  • Mobility Assistance Programs
  • Rent Reporting
  • Reparations
  • Fair and Equitable Appraisals
  • Acknowledgments
    • Dedicated Funding Sources

    Overview

    One way for local governments to increase the supply of housing in their communities is to provide dedicated funding or land for the acquisition, development, or rehabilitation of housing. These funds could come from tax increases, bond measures, housing trust funds, partnerships with philanthropic organizations, and other sources.

    Because building and operating housing that is affordable to households with the lowest incomes is not profitable for developers and landlords, supporting public and shared-equity housing is critical to providing safe, affordable homes for these households. Doing so can not only increase the supply of affordable housing, but also advance housing justice by increasing the stock of housing insulated from the private market and ensuring permanent affordability. Popular models of shared-equity housing include community land trusts (CLTs), which steward land to ensure that it is always affordable, and limited equity cooperatives, in which residents purchase shares in the collective development rather than individual housing units.

    Research suggests that both public and shared-equity housing models provide numerous benefits. One study found that those who lived in public housing as children had higher employment rates and increased earnings later in life than their peers who did not receive public housing assistance. And an evaluation found that shared-equity programs were successful in creating homeownership opportunities for households with low incomes and in creating a stock of affordable housing that remained in reach of future buyers with low incomes.

    Examples of This Strategy in Action

    • In March 2021, Montgomery County, Maryland, approved a $50 million fund to build nearly 9,000 publicly owned mixed-income units. Thirty percent of those units will be affordable to households with low incomes, and the remainder will be available at market rate. This ensures the developments can be self-sustaining, as the rental payments from the market-rate units will subsidize rents for those with lower incomes. Because the units produced by the fund will be publicly owned, the county can control rent and income restrictions and ensure that a certain proportion of units remain affordable in perpetuity.
    • In lieu of owning and operating properties themselves, other cities are choosing to fund shared equity models. New York City approved funding to incubate a network of CLTs across the city in 2019 that would support new and existing CLTs. In addition to providing financial support, the city has transferred ownership of several properties to local CLTs. In the long term, the NYC Community Land Trust Initiative aims to create thousands of units of permanently affordable housing.
    • The State of California set aside $500 million in 2021 for nonprofits, including CLTs, to purchase properties at foreclosure auctions. The City of Los Angeles has also invested millions to help local CLTs, including the Beverly-Vermont CLT, acquire land.

     

     

    Next intervention: Land Use Regulation and Approval Reforms