Category: News

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

 

New CLT Homes in Rodney Village

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We have created six permanently affordable homes in the Rodney Village community and have made a commitment to reach the goal of at least ten CLT homes there. We are about to begin work on the seventh home.

We have many partners to thank for our progress.

Kent County Levy Court
Working with Kent County Levy Court, we have been reinvesting program income from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) federal funds there. Since this will not provide us with sufficient funds to reach ten homes, we have begun soliciting private and other public funds to supplement the NSP income.

Longwood Foundation
Diamond State has received a grant of $125,000 from the Longwood Foundation for use in Rodney Village, allowing us to provide gap development funds in the homes we are developing.

Delaware Community Foundation
The Delaware Community Foundation is providing gap subsidy to be used in Rodney Village CLT homes.

Laffey-McHugh Foundation
The Laffey-McHugh Foundation gave us a special operating grant in Fiscal Year 2015.

Discover Bank
Discover Bank has supported our operating and development budgets over the past two years, as we have continued to rebuild foreclosed homes in Rodney Village.

NCALL Loan Fund
Along with additional project gap funding, we have been utilizing a revolving line of credit from NCALL Loan Fund for acquisition and rehabilitation of homes in Rodney Village.

Deutsche Bank
The Deutsche Bank Trust Company of Delaware provided operating funds specifically for work on the Rodney Village Homes.

Housing Development Fund
Most recently, we received funds from the Governor’s Council on Housing and the Delaware State Housing Authority to invest in the next four homes.

We are understandably grateful to all who have helped us and the community of Rodney Village.

Coming to Ellendale – New CLT Homes

Ingram front
The front view of our Ingram Village home

Thanks to recent funding awards from Federal Home Bank of Pittsburgh (FHLB) and the Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA), Diamond State CLT will be building three new homes in the Ingram Village development in the Town of Ellendale.The FHLB funds were made possible in partnership with member bank, WSFS Bank.

The Board of Directors of Diamond State CLT had previously dedicated funds to home ownership opportunities in Sussex County, where there is a significant need for affordable housing.

Sussex County has the largest housing affordability gap in the state for a family at 50% of AMI – now at $168,240 for the median home price of $265,000 in 2015 (source: DHC, Who Can Afford to Live in Delaware? 2015).

Sussex is also a very difficult housing environment for renters. Of the 50 states, Delaware has the sixth highest nonmetro area housing wage for a two-bedroom unit at $18.98. There is a significant portion of the rental population that experience housing cost burdens exceeding 30% of their income.

The Delaware Housing Needs Assessment 2015 – 2020 of Delaware State Housing Authority provides data related to housing need in the sub-market that contains Ellendale.

It found a need for homes for at least 710 very low income (≤50% of area median income) households and 800 low income (51 to 80% of area median income) home owners. It also indicated that there are at least 655 cost burdened renters (under 80% AMI) in the area from Milford to Georgetown.

Look for our new homes in mid-year.

For more information, contact Jo Ann Zorb, Home Ownership Manager.

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.