As home prices in DeKalb County soar out of reach for many longtime residents, county leaders are assessing a new tactic to reduce housing costs for low and moderate income residents — a community land trust.
The DeKalb Board of Commissioners this month allocated $122,000 for an initial feasibility study on forming a countywide land trust. This type of nonprofit retains ownership of the land itself, which allows it to sell or rent the housing on it at rates below market to people who otherwise could not afford it.
“As a proven tool to address the housing crisis, a community land trust will preserve long-term affordability, prevent displacement, and ensure that residents have access to safe, secure housing for generations to come,” the legislation’s sponsor, Commissioner Michelle Long Spears, said in a press release.
But first, the feasibility study must answer a few key questions, said Long Spears’ housing advisor, Andy Schneggenburger.
First, who should run the land trust — the county itself or a private nonprofit? While government-run land trusts might offer housing developers easier access to land and public funding, an external group could yield more community control and access to philanthropic donations.
Either way, DeKalb’s land trust “might run into funding challenges in a tight grant environment, or community opposition,” Schneggenburger said.
Next, he said, the study must inventory all of DeKalb’s property that could potentially be turned into a land trust. Consultants will have to ask, what sites would expand housing most quickly and meaningfully?
And most important, should the proposed DeKalb land trust focus more on reducing rents or expanding home ownership? The traditional aim of land trusts is to foster homeownership for lower-income people, since homebuyers pay only for the home itself, not the land owned by the trust.
But some land trusts focus on lowering rents or a combination of purposes. For instance, the People’s Community Land Trust in Atlanta bought a small apartment complex and lowered residents’ rents, while the community-run Athens Land Trust coordinates a mix of federal and local government subsidies to offer rental housing and homes for purchase and preserve green space.
Schneggenburger advocated for both. “The homeownership rate in DeKalb is lagging behind other metro Atlanta counties, so homeownership remains a political priority,” he said. “But I will always push for a land trust to steward rental property, because it is an effective tool to reduce housing costs.”
A rental housing component could become critical for DeKalb if the Trump administration dismantles the federal Section 8 rent-subsidy program funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said Amanda Rhein, who heads the Atlanta Land Trust, a private nonprofit that receives corporate, philanthropic, and public funds.
“If there is, all of a sudden, a gap created because of the crisis at the federal level, as it relates to deeply affordable rental housing, the [DeKalb] community land trust could step in,” she told Atlanta Civic Circle.