They helped us swim against the stream

Amy Walls and Jo Ann Zorb

Two formative leaders of Diamond State Community Land Trust are stepping away from the tremendous responsibility they have undertaken for the last eight years or more, and moving into much-needed but less demanding roles.

They came to us – avid, yet duly diligent – and served, during a time of tremendous uncertainty. Because of them, above all, it can be looked back upon now as a period of significant growth, consolidation, and coming of age as an organization.

Amy Walls and Jo Ann Zorb moved us forward remarkably.

Jo Ann, our Home Ownership Program Manager, has been the face of permanent affordability in Delaware and nationally for her entire time with us. Even more, she has been the the one to think through and implement, at the most practical level, helping people to have that moment of recognition of how a community land trust model can work with them. Some of those people include mortgage lenders, home appraisers, real estate agents, funders, local government representatives, and, most importantly, home buyers. In short, almost everybody.

Amy brought increasingly strong personal leadership to the board of directors, working strategically on board and program development with a longer view in mind. She displayed, on one hand, a deftness and intelligence finely tuned to our situation; and, on the other, an occasionally adamantine will. Her strength and determination brought us through.

While not, technically, founders of our organization, Amy and Jo Ann are formative figures. Despite the currents of scepticism about the shared-equity model and, in a nonprofit funding environment of rising uncertainty, they helped us move against the stream toward the firmer establishment of an organization providing permanently affordable homes in Delaware.

We can never thank them enough.

 

Diamond State CLT’s First Sussex Homes

In June 2017, Charlena Evans became a Diamond State CLT home owner in Ingram Village.

Congratulations to the first three families to become  home owners and Diamond State CLT members in Sussex County!

  1. Dominic Mancuso and David Marsh recently made settlement on our first DSCLT home in Sussex County!
  2. Robert and Carol Van Sciver became the second Diamond State CLT Homeowners in Sussex County shortly thereafter.
  3. And Charlena Evans purchased the third home built by Diamond State CLT in Sussex County at Ingram Village.
Thank You!

It is the fulfillment of a long process for Diamond State CLT to have begun to create permanently affordable homes in Sussex County.

Thanks go to a number of people and organizations:

  • Shannon Carmean Burton, Esq.
  • Delaware State Housing Authority & the Governor’s Council on Housing
  • Deutsche Bank Trust Company
  • Development Committee of the DSCLT Board
  • Discover Bank
  • Meridian Mortgages
  • Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh
  • NCALL Homeownership Programs & Loan Fund
  • Patrick Ryan, AIA
  • Sussex County Council
  • TD Bank
  • The Town of Ellendale
  • University of Delaware Agricultural Extension
  • U&I Builders
  • USDA Rural Development
  • Wakefield Associates
  • WSFS Bank

 

Home Owners Serve on Our Board

Board President Amy Walls with Lillian Harrison, Diane Crockett and daughter, Jacob and Lydia Arguelles, Dominic Mancuso

In recent months, Diamond State CLT welcomed four new board members; Lillian Harrison, Diane Crockett, Lydia Arguelles, and Dominic Mancuso.

Lillian Harrison

Lillian serves as the Housing and Credit Clinic Director at the Delaware Community Reinvestment Action Council (DCRAC), as well as the AmeriCorps VISTA Veterans Program Director.

Diane Crockett

Diane (with her daughter) became a DSCLT home owner last spring. Since then she has convened a subcommittee of the board strategic planning process and is a member of the Matched Savings Program Committee.

Lydia Arguelles

Lydia is a retired home-maker and mother of three. Her DSCLT Home is in Camden and she has been very active on our Community Engagement Committee. She often assists by attending Homebuyer Fairs and other events to speak with potential applicants.

Dominic Mancuso

Dominic is a retired information tech from Virginia who is purchasing a CLT home in Ingram Village.

The addition of Diane, Lydia, and Dominic to the board means that our homeowners now comprise one-third of our board of directors. The goal of CLT boards such as ours is to have one third of board members to come from CLT homeowners, community members, and public representatives, respectively.

 

We are thankful.

2015-11-24-walls-welcome
Left to right, Shalisa Alexander, is welcomed by Jo Ann Zorb of Diamond State CLT and Mary Ellen Gray of Kent County Planning Department, as is her mother, Francine Walls.

At Thanksgiving 2015, we were happy to announce our newest community land trust members and home owners.

That week, Francine Walls and her daughter, Shalisa Alexander, and grand-daughter, Patience, became the most recent Diamond State CLT home owners.

The family took possession of a home in the Rodney Village neighborhood that was acquired, completely rehabilitated, and sold with the financial support of the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program, administered by the Kent County Levy Court.

A grant from the Longwood Foundation and funds from Discover Bank and Deutsche Bank Trust Company Delaware also contributed to making home ownership possible for the Walls family. Project financing came from the NCALL Loan Fund.

Shortly after settlement, the family was visited by the Diamond State Welcome Wagon Committee which brought a house-warming basket, including a fresh turkey generously donated by TA Farms, Camden-Wyoming.

We at Diamond State CLT are grateful to have the Walls family join our CLT community.
We are also grateful to everyone who helped us create this new home and offer it to the Walls family.