Portland Community Land Trust

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Portland, Oregon
Portland experienced deterioration in several of its inner-city neighborhoods in the 1970s and ‘80s. In the 1990s, however, enormous growth, combined with urban renewal investment in the city’s poorer neighborhoods, caused real estate to skyrocket, doubling or tripling housing prices.

City officials, increasingly concerned about the lack of affordable housing, identified limited homeownership options as a key problem for lower-income people who had stable work histories, incomes and savings. The city had devoted sizable sums to subsidizing homeownership but placed no restrictions on the recipients, permitting resale to more affluent buyers.

The Portland Community Land Trust (PCLT) was established in 1999 to retain public subsidies and make homes perpetually affordable. The goal is to balance revitalization efforts with affordability, according to PCLT Executive Director Mary Bradshaw: “We target our advocacy efforts to make sure that as this tax increment money comes in, we’re not fueling displacement.” PCLT targets potential homeowners in revitalizing neighborhoods who have incomes between 50 and 80 percent of the area median income.

PCLT develops properties in partnership with nonprofit and for-profit housing developers. The largest is the seven and a half acre Rosemont Commons, a mixed-income development in North Portland that will provide almost 200 units of housing, mostly for low-income families and seniors.

Under a $400,000 grant from the city, PCLT also provides grants that allow qualified low-income families to buy an existing home in one of several neighborhoods. The cash grant purchases the land beneath the home, making it subject to a covenant that limits the resale value to the homeowner’s equity plus 25 percent of the home’s appreciated value. The buyer then takes out a mortgage – significantly smaller now that the land is purchased – to buy the home. PCLT views this program as critical in a city where land for new development is increasingly scarce.