How a Madison community land trust provides affordable housing

As Madison leaders and developers seek to build the city’s stock of affordable housing, one nonprofit has sought to keep land affordable for community uses like housing and urban agriculture since 1991.

The Madison Area Community Land Trust plans to add affordable housing through several projects in the next few years, including 12 townhomes on the Voit Farms property on Madison’s east side. Those projects are meant to build on more than five dozen homes already in the trust, which are kept affordable through a unique model.

This month marked a transition for the organization, with Mason Cavell taking over from Olivia Williams as the trust’s new executive director. The outgoing and incoming leaders recently sat down with the Cap Times to discuss the area’s housing needs and the nonprofit’s goals, and to answer the question: What is a land trust anyway?...   ...more

Leo’s notes: Through a model that separates land ownership from the home itself, MACLT ensures that every public dollar invested in affordability stays in the community forever — keeping homes attainable for families earning $50,000–$80,000. With new leadership in place and projects underway at Voit Farms and beyond, the land trust is expanding missing-middle options, supporting first-time buyers, and reducing displacement pressures by freezing land costs for future generations. In a moment when stability is increasingly out of reach, community land trusts offer one of the most durable pathways to affordable home ownership and long-term neighborhood resilience.

Ken Notes: It is the land and land owner the controls the development. Working with communities, Land Trusts could solve much of the workforce housing issues in the State by developing small clusters of homes, nice small well built architecture, great amenities and public space.