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Become a
member of Diamond State CLT
The Diamond State Community Land Trust
The mission of the Diamond State CLT is to strengthen communities by creating and stewarding perpetually affordable housing and promoting sustainable use of the land.
We have a vision of:
An increasing stock of perpetually affordable housing in Delaware
Our Goals are to 1) expand asset-building homeownership opportunities for low-income households and 2) preserve and steward the subsidies that make those opportunities possible. We do this by creating partnerships that stimulate the production of affordable housing in Delaware and insure its preservation through the CLT model.
The Role of the Diamond State CLT is that of a broker and facilitator within Delaware’s existing affordable housing delivery system.
Board of Directors
For more information/to get involved:
Projects in Development
Buyer-initiated programs have proven very popular with community land trusts and homebuyers across the country. Prospective homebuyers contact DSCLT and are pre-qualified for homeownership. As part of pre-qualification, they complete homeownership education and counseling. The homebuyers then identify the home of their choice on the open real estate market, within guidelines for price. DSCLT will provide a subsidy to the homebuyer to help them afford the home. The homebuyers purchase the home, and the land is placed in the CLT’s portfolio for stewardship.
DSCLT is working with the New Horizons Cooperative to create a new homeownership community in Sussex County, composed of top-quality manufactured homes on permanent foundations on CLT land. A group of families, formerly of the Morris Mill Pond Cooperative, a group that was displaced after a lengthy struggle in 2005 from a manufactured home community, has reorganized under the name New Horizons. This group of families will be the first homeowners in this unique affordable housing venture. Concurrently, the New Horizons group plans to acquire the use of 25 to 40 acres of agricultural land in Sussex County. This property will be used for growing and selling a variety of vegetable crops. The University of Delaware Agricultural Extension Service is assisting the group in developing the cooperative and a comprehensive, multi-year Business Plan.
DSCLT will work with and within cities and towns to reclaim vacant and abandoned properties in targeted neighborhoods for homeownership. A central part of our mission is to promote sustainable land use: Development within municipalities, rehabilitation of existing homes, use of vacant and abandoned properties, and the revitalization of neighborhoods is in line with that mandate. Projects can take many forms, including rehabilitation or new construction, and involve a variety of partners, including local community and nonprofit organizations. The first of these partnerships is with the City of Seaford. The CLT is also pursuing possible partnerships with other jurisdictions.
DSCLT is working with Sussex County and to develop a long-term partnership to monitor affordability restrictions on non-CLT homes developed through their Moderately-Priced Housing Unit (MPHU) program. The MPHU program offers density and other bonuses to developers in exchange for inclusion of units affordable to low and moderate income households. Resale prices of these homes are restricted for 20 years. The first projects in the MPHU program will create several hundred homes affordable to moderate-income households. As part of its long-term strategy to build the portfolio of CLT homes, DSCLT plans to develop capital to bring a percentage of MPHU homes into the CLT at initial sale or at resales. In the other two counties and cities and towns throughout the state, DSCLT will be an advocate for strong inclusionary housing policies that incorporate permanent affordability and a role for the CLT. Long-term, these institutional relationships could result in significant inventory for the Diamond State CLT.
Through the Affordable Housing Grant program and other partnerships, DSCLT provides supplemental funding for affordable housing development projects by nonprofit housing organizations in return for ownership of the land parcels on which properties are constructed or rehabilitated. DSCLT funds can be used to fill the gap between total development cost and when-done appraisal value (appraisal gap) and/or to help fill the gap between appraisal value and affordable sale price (affordability gap).
