First project could see 46 new residential units in Huntsville.
Affordable housing can take many forms, but for the team at the Muskoka Community Land Trust (MCLT), the hope is to build high-quality communities that people can afford to live in.
The non-profit organization’s board consists of people with a wide variety of skills and experience, from real estate and finance to marketing, community advocacy and lived experience with poverty. The team is working with community partners to tackle the housing crisis by bringing something new to Muskoka: community land trusts.
This is when a person purchases a home outright but leases the land from a community land trust, paying a fixed rate based on their income.
“We remove the land from structures, thereby keeping the land in perpetuity and what gets developed on that land is removed from the open real estate market and the housing prices are kept in control,” explained MCLT president Suzanne Martineau
“We can share equity with the homeowners who qualify to purchase, we can create affordable rental stock, there’s a lot of different models and options that we can do but basically we’re holding that land on behalf of the community to develop for community needs,” she said.
Suzanne Martineau of the Muskoka Community Land Trust explains how community land trusts help people attain affordable housing. | Muskoka Community Land Trust photo
The organization is currently developing its strategic plan and in the early stages of its first project in Huntsville, ideally on Florence Street. The proposal would see 46 residential units consisting of five townhouses with eight units per structure, as well as a six-plex for rental units.
“Once we get this one project off the ground and show how we can bring this type of model to the community for housing, it will just expand to every community and town or township in the district,” said Martineau.
The MCLT is working closely with the Town of Huntsville and the district on the project, which would be the first of its kind in Muskoka.
As the province seeks to pass Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act, Martineau said she does see potential benefits to the new legislation for land trusts. One aspect is eliminating or reducing development charges for affordable housing construction.
“That absolutely is going to impact and incentivize developers and builders to construct affordable housing,” she said.
MCLT board member Ben Jardine said that while there are positives and negatives to the new legislation, “it really is a big stepping stone for affordable housing.”
“It takes the concern away from being solely about rent control or sale control and it gives a little bit more creativity to developers, public and private, to either leverage their land and their assets in a different form or to seek more creative types of financing or just increase density,” he said. “That alone can have a dramatic impact, whereas the previous incentives and grants that were out there (previously) were very rigidly structured.”
Beyond being affordable, the MCLT wants its projects to also be accessible and environmentally-friendly, with a lower carbon footprint and appealing design welcomed by neighbours.
“It’s not just about building these dwellings and selling them at an affordable rate; it’s about building these communities that will be perpetually very safe, forever affordable and sustainable,” said Jardine.
But to be successful, community land trusts need both quantitative support, like funding, land donations and project approvals, but also qualitative support, which means changing the stigma surrounding affordable housing, he explained.
“We’re not looking to build stereotypical low-income housing developments. We’re building high-end, high-quality communities but by leveraging land, leveraging assets that the Muskoka Community Land Trust will build … we’re able to do so in an affordable and accessible manner,” he said.
Sarah Law – MuskokaRegion.com – Wednesday, November 16, 2022