Good morning, readers.
Five homes that the Eno River Association (ERA) not too long ago intended to evict longtime Durham renters from were purchased this month, for the price of $1, by a local land trust that plans to fix them up and keep them in tenants’ hands.
The transfer of the homes to Community Home Trust marks another milestone in the ongoing and already historic fight that tenants began more than a year ago when the ERA announced plans to sell their homes to the state park’s department. The tenants have so far successfully organized to avoid eviction and pushed the ERA to hand off the homes to an organization with a shared equity land trust model.
Community Land Trust will keep the homes affordable in perpetuity and tenants will have the option to either buy the homes or continue renting, says Kimberly Sanchez, the executive director of the Chapel Hill based nonprofit.
“The reason the homes stay affordable forever is because we cap appreciation,” Sanchez says. “We don’t allow you to go sell it, because we can’t give you all of that appreciation and keep the home affordable for the next family. So that’s the trade off; that’s really the criticism of land trusts that we get. But it’s also the thing that people love about it. And so the idea that these tenants wanted to keep the houses affordable forever, was just, I mean, it’s—it’s just not something people think of nowadays. It’s like fast-forward progressive thinking. It was really impressive to us.”
Between a loan from the Durham Affordable Housing Loan Fund and a grant from the Oak Foundation, Community Home Trust has obtained more than $1 million to put toward repairs on the homes, Sanchez says.
Contractors are currently assessing what needs to be done and will start work soon, she says. The first order of business: mending leaky roofs.
—Lena
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this newsletter incorrectly stated that the Oak Foundation is based in Raleigh.
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Orange
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North Carolina
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Today’s weather
Sunny with a high of 78 degrees.
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