XPost: atl.housing, alt.home.repair, talk.politics.guns   
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   From: democrat-insurrection@mail.house.gov   
      
   https://calmatters.org/politics/2024/10/community-land-trusts/   
      
   California allotted half a billion dollars to help community land trusts   
   across the state. But budget cuts and bureaucracy have land trust   
   advocates back where they were in 2020: seeking state aid to preserve   
   affordable housing.   
      
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   Golden State.   
      
   Luke Johnson and his neighbors thought they had found the perfect solution   
   to avoid being displaced from their Silver Lake, Los Angeles fourplex: A   
   state program was offering $500 million to help tenants, community land   
   trusts and other affordable housing developers buy buildings at risk of   
   foreclosure.   
      
   With their longtime landlords set on selling the building, Johnson and his   
   neighbors persuaded them to sell to a community land trust that pledged to   
   keep rents low.   
      
   But six months later, the state program has vanished after failing for   
   three years to give out any of the grants and loans it promised. The deal   
   with their landlords has collapsed. That leaves Johnson, 85, and his   
   husband unsure whether they’ll be able to stay in the rent-controlled two-   
   bedroom apartment where Johnson has lived for nearly half a century.   
      
   The sudden disappearance of half a billion dollars of state money meant to   
   help community land trusts has left some housing advocates questioning   
   California’s commitment to preserving existing affordable housing, a   
   strategy that’s less flashy than building new units but can also be less   
   expensive.   
      
   “It’s a struggle for us and I’m sure for a lot of other people who counted   
   on getting that grant and didn’t get it,” Johnson said.   
      
   State lawmakers created the Foreclosure Intervention Housing Preservation   
   Program in 2021. It was a watershed moment for community land trusts,   
   nonprofits that purchase land and preserve it as permanently affordable   
   housing by renting or selling the buildings on it to low- and moderate-   
   income residents. Residents then manage the property cooperatively.   
      
   While community land trusts have tripled in number in California over the   
   last decade, springing up everywhere from coastal and inland cities to   
   tribal lands and the Mexican border, they often struggle to raise enough   
   money to compete with private developers. Access to a dedicated pot of   
   state money was poised to be a game-changer for both the trusts and cities   
   seeking to prevent displacement of low-income residents, said San   
   Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston.   
      
   “We had hoped the state would help San Francisco and other cities that   
   want to really ramp up these programs,” Preston said. “(Community land   
   trusts are) a very effective, quick and permanent way of creating truly   
   affordable housing with resident control.”   
      
   The state planned to dole out the half-billion dollars in loans and grants   
   over five years, funding purchases of financially distressed buildings of   
   up to 25 units.   
      
   Three years in, however, the state agency charged with developing the   
   program, the Department of Housing and Community Development, had yet to   
   give out a single dollar.   
      
   This spring, with California facing a projected $56 billion budget   
   deficit, some lawmakers began raising concerns.   
      
   “It’s the kind of thing that you look at and it makes your head explode,”   
   Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, who chaired the Assembly’s budget committee,   
   said in an interview. “This is something of importance to everyone in   
   California, and yet we’re sitting here with this tremendous allocation of   
   resources and making zero progress. That is totally unacceptable.”   
      
   Lawmakers scrapped the program in June.   
      
   It wasn’t the only state spending on the chopping block this year. But   
   community land trust advocates complained that the state’s slow rollout   
   undermined the program before it could get started.   
      
   “We got into the 2021 budget expecting the funds would be available within   
   a year or year and a half,” said Leo Goldberg, co-director of policy at   
   the California Community Land Trust Network. “If the program had been   
   rolled out, there would have been successes to point to that would have   
   made it easier to defend.”   
      
   Three years in, zero progress   
   Johnson said he immediately felt at home in the diverse Silver Lake of the   
   1980s, with its vibrant and organized LGBTQ community, Latino families   
   socializing on porches and Russian immigrants filling Orthodox churches.   
   Over the last 40 years, he’s watched the neighborhood gentrify as hipster   
   professionals moved in, bringing their cash with them.   
      
   Johnson’s now-husband, Osbey, came to house-sit in 1990 and never left.   
   They and their neighbors, friends who have all lived in the building for   
   at least a decade, hosted community events in the complex’s back garden.   
      
   When their landlord signed a contract to sell the building to a for-profit   
   developer, they feared displacement. Average rent for a two-bedroom in   
   Silver Lake had ballooned over the years to nearly $4,000 per month,   
   according to Zumper.com, about four times what Johnson and his husband   
   currently pay.   
      
   After he and his neighbors, one of whom had experience organizing with the   
   Los Angeles Tenants Union, launched a phone and email campaign, the   
   private developer backed away from the deal and their landlord agreed   
   earlier this year to sell to the Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust,   
   giving the trust until this month to raise the $1.5 million purchase   
   price.   
      
   That should have worked: California was expected to start distributing the   
   affordable housing preservation funds this year. Land trusts were already   
   having initial conversations with the fund manager selected to run the   
   program about projects that would be eligible.   
      
   But by July the expected state support was off the table. The clock was   
   ticking to find a backup plan. The residents started an online   
   crowdfunding campaign and threw a backyard fundraiser with barbecue and a   
   drag show. The land trust pitched the project to small banks and credit   
   unions.   
      
   Even if the trust got approved for a loan, the interest on a private loan   
   would likely be much higher than using state money, foiling the tenants’   
   plans to keep their rent affordable. Kasey Ventura, an organizer with the   
   land trust who had negotiated similar deals, estimated rents on the units   
   would need to rise to at least $2,000 a month — still below market rate,   
   but a significant jump.   
      
   The loss of the state fund was a “huge setback” for not only the Silver   
   Lake tenants, but community land trusts across the Los Angeles area who   
   had been banking on the support, Ventura said.   
      
      
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