Land trust idea worth exploring

As the battle cry for affordable housing intensifies in the Flathead Valley and Northwest Montana, communities are looking for new ways to provide decent housing at affordable prices. They may have found the answer in a fairly old concept - community land trusts.

Kalispell, Whitefish, Columbia Falls and Eureka are in various stages of pursuing community land trusts to ease a housing crunch that isn't going away any time soon. Land prices have spiraled out of control for the working class, and though the real-estate market seems to have leveled off recently, housing prices continue to remain out of reach for many.

Community land trusts typically are set up by a nonprofit corporation that buys property and owns the land for as long as the trust exists. People buy homes on the trust land and build up equity, but a cap on the home's resale price ensures the price stays within reach for the next buyer. And because the trust owns the land, homes can be sold at affordable prices.

If such trusts can be established in the Flathead, they would give low-income residents a way to build wealth. They're also a way to fend off gentrification, especially in resort communities such as Whitefish.

To its credit, the Whitefish Housing Authority has made the most progress in creating a community land trust. That city's tireless housing director, SueAnn Grogan, intends to get an umbrella nonprofit corporation set up by May.

Last week a member of the Flathead County Long-Range Planning Task Force suggested that one nonprofit group could serve as the umbrella organization for all community land trust efforts in the area. It's an idea to consider, but establishing a nonprofit group in each community may yield better control in dealing with the idiosyncrasies of housing needs in each community.

Community land trusts have surged in popularity, with the number of community land trusts in North America nearly tripling from 1987 to 2004.

But the idea is not new.

Robert Swann, who wrote a book on the subject, noted that land trusts have historic roots in the indigenous Americas, in pre-colonial Africa and in ancient Chinese economic systems. In the U.S., residential land trusts emerged in the 1950s and 1960s as civil-rights leaders sought reform to reverse rampant poverty.

Community land trusts won't solve all of the Flathead's housing needs, but they're a viable option and we applaud the civic leaders who are championing them in their own hometowns.