Long Island
Since 2005, New Directions has offered education and technical assistance for the promotion of local community land trusts throughout Nassau and Suffolk Counties.  Following the South Country example, we urge that CLT's be incorporated at the school district level in order to maintain strong local control and to coordinate with other Discover Your Community activities.   Executive Director Bob Mulvey's work for CLT's on Long Island was recently recognized in a Newsday LI Life cover story, "A Man on a Mission," January 21,2007.

Two months earlier, a Newsday editorial had called for Long Islanders to consider the CLT as an important addition to the region's housing mix.

Less-costly housing
Own the home but share the equity
November 17, 2006

Of all the strategies for producing more housing that working families can afford, the one that has so far received the least attention in these parts is the community land trust. But there's been a quiet grassroots movement in that direction, and now the Ford Foundation is entering the fray on Long Island. That's a healthy turn of events.

There's wide agreement that the Island needs both more single-family homes and more rental units. But there's a third way: shared equity. That's where land trusts come in.

A trust is a nonprofit organization that owns the land under houses it builds or acquires, sells houses at affordable prices and leases the land long-term to the homeowner. It keeps housing affordable by retaining part of the appreciation in the houses' value. This lets owners build equity and move up the housing ladder, without making an undue profit, and lets land trusts keep down prices for future buyers. The subsidy stays with the land, not with the owner.

Here, there's movement toward land trusts in such places as Southold, Bellport and Farmingdale, with a boost from a group called New Directions Community-Based Research Institute. On Monday, at the Milleridge Inn in Jericho, the institute is hosting an event that marks a significant turning point: It features a talk by George McCarthy, a senior program officer at the Ford Foundation.

The foundation wants to see shared-equity units increase from about a quarter of one percent of all units to about 25 percent nationwide. McCarthy says too many people think of land trusts as a funky, counterculture approach. Still, there are more than 200 land trusts in the country. In California, for example, the City of Irvine has opted for one, and there are early discussions in New York City. It's worth exploring as one strategy for increasing the affordability of housing, and the Ford Foundation's encouragement should help.
Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.

Here is the program for the November 20, 2006 Workshop:


Community Land Trusts in Action, 2006
Presented by
New Directions Community-Based Research Institute, Inc.

Monday, 8 a.m.-2:00 p.m.

November 20, 2006
Milleridge Inn, Jericho NY.
8:00
Registration & continental breakfast
8:30
Welcome: Chairperson, Michelle Di Benedetto
Facilitator: Robert J. Mulvey, Executive Director
8:45
George McCarthy, Senior Program Officer in Development Finance and Economic Security, Ford Foundation
CLT's must grow in capacity to fulfill a stabilizing role in regional sustainable development.
9:30
Michael Monte, Community Development Director, City of Burlington
Twenty years of success in Burlington, VT: establishing a relationship between the City, CDA & the regional CLT
10:00
Coffee break
10:15
Regional Reflections
Peter Elkowitz, CEO, Long Island Housing Partnership
Bob Wieboldt, Exec. V.P. Long Island Builders Institute
Joseph Quagliata, President and CEO, South Nassau Community Hospital
Marian H. Russo, Esq., Executive Director, Village of Patchogue Community Development Agency
11:15
Feedback & Evaluation: O. Andrew Collver, Research Director
11:30
Questions & Answers: Robert J. Mulvey
12:30
Lunch
   Underwritten by Citibank                                       Sponsored by Ridgewood Savings Bank