Diamond State CLT

July 2008

Diamond State CLT Finalizes its First 10-Year Business Plan for 2008-2017

OUR GOAL: 350 Permanently Affordable Homes in 10 Years

Today, Delaware has 320,000 households. By 2017 this is expected to increase to 365,000.  About 100,000 of current households, 1/3 of Delaware’s population, falls in the income ranges served by DSCLT. Of these 100,000 households, 44,000 are “cost-burdened.” That is, they pay more than 30% of their incomes for housing. Many of these households could benefit from owning a community land trust home.

Housing costs, even in this period of real estate slowdown, far exceed the ability of many Delawareans to reasonably afford. With higher fuel and food prices seemingly here to stay, expanding homeownership to more families will require new and better approaches. In each of Delaware's counties, the median home price is well beyond the affordable price for a household earning 80% of the area median income (AMI), as illustrated in the three charts below.

Affordability Gap -- Kent County

Affordability Gap -- New Castle County

Affordability Gap -- Sussex County

Our goal is to create an inventory of 350 permanently affordable homes in the next ten years. This represents one-tenth of one-percent of the households in 2017. In our estimation, Delaware needs about 36,000 permanently affordable CLT homes to meet demand.

How are we going to create an inventory of 350 permanently affordable homes?

Through Partnerships:

Production - our current partners include Interfaith Community Housing of Delaware, Milford Housing Development Corporation, Dover & Wilmington Housing Authorities, and DiSabatino Group. Discussions are underway with additional housing producers as well as the counties, state and cities/towns. Throughout Delaware, awareness of the need for affordable home-ownership opportunities is growing. And in these times of scarce resources, CLT homeownership offers a far more cost effective solution than traditional methods.

Funding - supporters include Bank of America, Citigroup Foundation, CFED, County Bank, Delaware Community Foundation, Delaware Housing Coalition, DSHA, Deutsche Bank, Discover Bank, Fannie Mae, GMAC Bank, Housing Capacity Building Program, JP Morgan Chase Foundation, Kent, New Castle and Sussex Counties, NCALL Loan Fund, National CLT Network, PNC Bank, Sussex County Association of Realtors, & WSFS, and individual members. Project funding will also come from FHLB, HOME, CDBG, NAA, State of Delaware, state & national foundations.

There’s much more to our plans... If you, your group or professional association would like to learn more about DSCLT, receive a presentation on our Business Plan & current projects, ask questions, and learn how you can help support the mission - please call Van Temple at 302-229-0818 or e-mail van@diamondstateclt.org. We’ll be happy to arrange a time to meet with you.

Diamond State CLT -- the First Statewide Community Land Trust in the United States