Homestead Community Land Trust

Mission

Homestead Community Land Trust creates stability, equity and opportunity by developing land and housing in trust, giving lower-income households the opportunity to own a home that is affordable to them and remains affordable to future owners.  Our work is expanding an equitable economy for housing to help repair the harms of housing discrimination and protect vulnerable communities from displacement. 

Description

Homestead Community Land Trust creates first-time home-buying opportunities for households shut out of ownership by discrimination and/or our high-cost market. A family of four making under $95,000 per year can buy a $320,000 (or less) home with a traditional, fixed-rate mortgage. Their fixed, affordable housing payment builds equity and the security of a permanent address gives them the opportunity to plan and build for their future. We work in King County with emphasis on areas at risk of gentrification and displacement.

Our growing supply of permanently affordable homes for ownership plays an essential role in giving all people equitable access to opportunity. When modest income families have opportunities to gain stability and create wealth safely through affordable homeownership, neighborhoods gain strength and resilience, and our community moves together towards social justice, economic vitality, and environmental sustainability.

We are a classic community land trust, following the model created by Civil Rights era leaders to prevent displacement and allow people to build wealth through ownership. We build new homes, we fundraise to reduce the price of homes to what is affordable to an lower-income household, and we keep homes affordable permanently through agreements with our homeowners and post-purchase support. 

Since our founding in 1992, Homestead has given over 300 income-qualified households the opportunity to own a home.  Nearly 60% of our heads of household are people of color. We have kept people safely in their homes and have a foreclosure rate of less than 1%.

Below are short clips from our benefit last fall with Dr. Henry Gates highlighting Homestead's commitment towards housing justice. Witness the powerful testimonies of King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay and Homestead Board President Cherryl Jackson-Williams on how Homestead is building a legacy of permanently affordable homeownership throughout our region. 

Also included in the media gallery is a video from Homestead's 30th Anniversary Celebration that showcases our deep partnerships with community coalitions, and provides an explanation of how permanent affordability works. 

And to learn more about our program's impact from Homestead homeowners themselves, visit our our website, or YouTube channel to view interviews and stories from our homeowning families. 

We have 200+ homes to build over the next couple years, and a goal of 1000 homes by 2032. We are grateful for your support to keep our hammers swinging and the roofs rising. 

Thank you for your gift to Homestead Community Land Trust!! TOGETHER, we can build an affordable future!