Northwest Montana Community Land Trust

The community land trust (CLT) is an equitable and sustainable model of affordable housing and community development that has slowly spread throughout the United States during the past 30 years. In 2007, Doug Rauthe, Executive Director of Community Action Partnership of Northwest Montana (CAP) held a meeting with the Housing Affordability Ladder (HAL) coalition of Flathead County to discuss the community land trust model.

Powerpoint Presentation

In January of 2008, The Whitefish Housing Authority (WHA) and Community Action Partnership of Northwest Montana (CAP) brought in Michael Brown, a consultant with Burlington Associates (http://www.burlingtonassociates.com), a national consulting cooperative founded in 1993. The partners and associates for this firm specialize in the development and evaluation of affordable housing policies and community land trust programs that:

• Enhance security of tenure for lower-income households by expanding access to various forms of shared equity homeownership.
  
• Protect the community’s investment in affordable housing by preventing the removal of public or private subsidies.
  
• Preserve the long-term affordability of privately-owned housing created either through the investment of public dollars or through the exercise of public powers like inclusionary zoning, density bonuses, or regulatory relief.

The result of the consultant’s visit soon became a statewide event with a presentation in Helena, Montana for non-profit agencies, federal funders and state officials.

The Whitefish Housing Authority began working in earnest with Michael Brown. During Mr. Brown’s visit, the surrounding communities were invited to participate. In the spring of 2008, the Whitefish Area Land Trust (WALT) was formed.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced in July 2008 that Congress approved $19.4 million of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) in the form of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) to be distributed across Montana to address the housing crisis. The City of Kalispell recognized an opportunity and invited Community Action Partnership of Northwest Montana to partner with them to apply for $4 million of (NSP) funds. CAP accepted the invitation with a plan to use the NSP funds to develop a community land trust. On behalf of the City of Kalispell, CAP prepared and sent an application to the State of Montana Department of Commerce. The proposed strategy was to purchase up to twenty-two (22) foreclosed and vacant homes in the city of Kalispell and place the homes into a community land trust in order to preserve the home’s affordability in perpetuity.

In January of 2009 the City of Kalispell, Community Action Partnership, and other community partners invited Michael Brown back to do formative work on a community land trust covering the balance of northwest Montana.

Upon approval of the NSP application submitted by CAP, a new non-profit, Northwest Montana Community Land Trust, Inc. (NWMCLT) was formed and is soon to be operational. Foreclosed homes are being purchased with NSP funds and the homes, without the lots, will soon be for sale to low and middle-income first time homebuyers in the Kalispell workforce.

Contact Information:
Jared Johnson
NSP Coordinator
(406) 758-5491

Marney McCleary
Acting Executive Director
(406) 758-5411


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