City of Greensboro gives preview on what its community land trust would entail

The city of Greensboro gave a preview Tuesday of what its community land trust could look like, and how it could create permanent affordable housing for low- to moderate-income families.

Community land trusts are nonprofit organizations that acquire, own, and steward property in a focused area. They sell homes to qualifying low-income buyers who then agree to later sell them at an affordable price to another family.

Greensboro contracted the nonprofit Grounded Solutions Network to help develop its own.

In a meeting to update residents on the effort, Community and Technical Assistance Principal Jason Webb, who works for the nonprofit, said the land trust would first focus on redevelopment areas like Eastside Park and Willow Oaks, and reinvestment areas like Dudley Heights.

"A lot of times that's where we see a lot of displacement happening," Webb said. "We'll be able to mitigate around that displacement factor that does come when there's redevelopment and reinvestment in areas."

The Greensboro Community Land Trust would have a Board of Directors with 11 to 15 members. Webb said a majority would be residents of the neighborhoods that are being impacted.

The housing would target people making 80% of the area's median income and below.

It's currently estimated to take eight to 12 months before the city's community land trust is officially launched.