Essex Community Land Trust

There is a crucial need for permanent affordable housingin Essex County, New Jersey. Essex County consists of a very diverse setof cities, townships, and boroughs. These communities all differ inculture, social economic statuses, school systems, and much more.Although these communities may share the same county name, they areseparated by invisible income and ethnicity lines that preventlow-to-moderate income citizens from living in high income areas whichcreates a need for permanent affordable housing throughout the county.Inresponse to the growing need, in 2011, community leaders eager andequipped with CLT knowledge were inspired into action to create theEssex Community Land Trust.TheECLT pursues strategic partnerships with community developmentcorporations, municipalities, banks, government, and other nonprofitorganizations who share the belief that there must be permanentaffordable high quality housing options available throughout the county.These partnerships will allow the CLT to acquire land in its portfolio,work with community developers to build new or renovate old housing,locate qualified low-to-moderate individuals interested inhomeownership, assist organizations in providing homeownershipeducation, and assist the potential buyer in finding a mortgage. Byusing a CLT model, state and local subsidy will be captured long-termand new subsidy can go to production of more permanently affordablehousing. CLTs have a %90 success rate against foreclosure!Acommunity land trust is a community organization. While the ECLT willhold the title to the land; it is the community who owns it as a whole.The ECLT will help to empower community members to ensure that theirstreets are no longer plagued with burned down homes and toxic lotsrather with renovated affordable living space. The ECLT will help toensure that the children of the community members will always be able toafford to live in the neighborhood alongside new development. The ECLTwill also help to ensure that permanent affordable homeownershipopportunities within the more luxurious of communities is available forlow-to- moderate income people giving them the option to live in anymunicipality they would like regardless of their income and/orethnicity.