Wealthy Heights’ community land trust project gets underway with $462,000 loan

The Grand Rapids Community Foundation has approved a low-interest loan of $462,000 to Dwelling Place, a nonprofit housing group, for the purchase of several Wealthy Heights’ homes that will form the basis of a new affordable housing model in the city.

Dwelling Place plans to establish the Kent County Community Land Trust, a separate organization that will own the land in perpetuity and sell long-term leases to low-income tenants. The tenants will essentially own their homes but not the land – seeing a return on their investment should they sell it and the lease.

With typical affordable housing efforts, only the first low-income buyer capitalizes on the purchase of a new or renovated home that has been subsidized by philanthropic groups. Once that buyer sells on the open market, the “affordable housing” is gone. But a community land trust locks affordability into the neighborhood, requiring the sale of each long-term lease go from one qualified buyer to another.

Dwelling Place has signed a purchase agreement with Community Rebuilders for the initial trust properties in Wealthy Heights, a short segment of Wealthy Street between Fuller and Diamond avenues and the five residential streets that run north of it (Donald, Robey, Freyling, Calkins and Visser places). The nine properties will combine with four vacant city lots to form nearly 40,000 square feet of land. Five houses will be renovated, four demolished and eight new homes constructed on the land, totaling nearly $2.9 million in project costs.

Marred by high absentee ownership rates, Wealthy Heights has stubbornly resisted change despite the blossoming of nearby business districts along Wealthy Street and in East Hills. After revitalization efforts in the 1990s produced mixed results, the East Hills Council of Neighbors and Wealthy Mainstreet joined with several other neighborhood groups in 2003 to redouble efforts. Intense planning and market research ultimately produced the community land trust concept.

Key next steps include the establishment of a neighborhood advisory council to oversee the project and securing formal city clearance for demolition and construction.

Source: Dennis Sturtevant, Chief Executive Officer, Dwelling Place