DiGiPHOTO

For low-income and working class families, a chance at homeownership through the Community Land Trust model is a promising pathway toward asset development, and for some perhaps their only opportunity. The San Francisco Community Land Trust (SFCLT) is a membership-based, nonprofit organization whose mission is to create permanently affordable, resident-owned housing for low - and moderate-income people in San Francisco. Our vision is to preserve San Francisco's diminishing affordable housing stock by acquiring and converting rental buildings into permanently affordable, limited equity housing cooperatives - an alternative form of homeownership - through which the current residents become owners of the building, while the Land Trust maintains ownership of the land. By separating the building from the land, the units become affordable while SFCLT maintains the affordability requirements in perpetuity. The Land Trust secures the financing for acquisition and conversion, then provides the education and technical assistance to residents throughout the process to ensure long-term sustainability of the resident association and the property. At a practical asset administration and property management level, the Land Trust model of cooperative homeownership is essentially like a conventional homeowners association or tenancy in common.