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Athens Land Trust
Spotlight on a Versatile Local Nonprofit
if
you've ever wondered what Athens Land Trust (ALT)
does, you're not alone. Though the nonprofit has been
operating in Athens since 1994, there are many here
who don't understand its multifaceted mission. ALT works to
improve quality of life across the Athens community through
its unique approach to both urban and rural land stewardship.
The nonprofit's staff, board, members and volunteers see land
as a shared resource whose use has impacts that reverberate
throughout the whole local environment.
ALT operates on three fronts: land conservation, afford
able housing and community gardens. It holds conservation
easements that protect over 1,200 acres of working farmland,
neighborhood open space and pristine natural areas from
development. ALT residential properties remain permanently
affordable and provide an opportunity for home owner
ship to families who otherwise would not have it. And ALT'S
Community Garden Network provides access to land for food
growing—so that more Athens residents can benefit from fresh
food, better nutrition, grocery savings and an activity that
builds community.
Executive Director Nancy Stangle
says that ALT'S affordable housing role
is the one most likely to confuse those
unfamiliar with the organization's
work. She explains that community
land trusts rehabilitate and sell homes
to income-qualified buyers, while
retaining ownership of the underlying
land in perpetuity. A 99-year renew
able and heritable ground lease allows
the residents to use the land as long
as they wish to live there, even if their
income rises above the original stan
dard. Only if and when they decide to
sell the house does the lease require
that it be sold back to the land trust,
to be made available for another
income-qualified family. The origi
nal family earns a percentage of any
increase in home value—-an incentive
to keep the house well maintained*
All ALT construction is Earthcraft-
certified, as well, which means lower
energy bills in the long term.
The land trust approach means that buyers pay only the
price of the house, not of the land, and that the property will
always be resold as affordable even if the land value increases
dramatically. In more conventional affordable home ownership
initiatives, a nonprofit may sell an entire property to a quali
fied buyer at below market rate, but there are no controls on
reselling. If the property value increases, affordability is lost
when the house is sold.
While some potential buyers see real estate acquisition
as a moneymaking investment, the land trust approach is for
those who wouldn't otherwise have access to home ownership.
Housing Director Heather Benham says ALT homeowners typi
cally want to paint their houses the color they want, live near
work, do what they want with the yard, be able to improve
their homes and have a house to pass on to the next genera
tion. It's also about social equity: Stangle cites research that
has found renters pay three times more for housing over their
lifetimes than homeowners. "So, the people who can least
afford it are paying more," she says, "and that's something I'd
really like to see changed."
The people who become ALT homeowners, according to
Stangle, include hospital workers, elder care specialists, UGA
custodians, poultry workers and other hardworking profession
als who support the community. Delreey Faison, who bought an
ALT property on Hancock Avenue last year, has been a school
bus driver for 13 years. She is also studying social work assis
tance at Athens Technical College and has a son and daughter
in college. She loves her house and the neighborhood. "Really,
it was a godsend," she says. "My last rental apartment—I
called it a sardine can."
Athens Land Trust invests in long-term partnerships with
its homeowners and provides important support. "Education
leads to success," says Benham: first-time homebuyer educa
tion sessions, post-purchase programs, maintenance advice
and counseling from volunteer attorneys are all offered to help
inexperienced homeowners quickly become wise ones.
The method works: community land trusts across the coun
try have a % 95 percent non-foreclosure rate, compared to 50
percent in other home ownership programs. "When you hear
about it, you wonder, 'why isn't everybody doing it this way?',"
Benham says.
ALT properties also are powerful catalysts for reinvestment
in key Athens neighborhoods. "When we started, Benham
remembers, "there was tremendous pressure on in-town, mostly
black neighborhoods from students and outside investors"—
often not ideal stewards of the neighborhoods' historic homes.
ALT concentrated its efforts in the Hancock corridor, then
brimming with empty, abandoned properties. By rehabilitating
historic houses in the area and bringing in owner-occupiers
with a long-term stake in the homes, ALT has revitalized this
neighborhood. "If you saw that area before, you would say we
were crazy. But we thought it was important," Benham says.
ALT turns derelict properties that would otherwise be blights
on the neighborhood into anchors of continuity and stability.
ALT homeowner Ruth Sims, her son Chuck, grandsons Tyler and Malik, and dog Chi Chi in their home
on Nellie B Avenue.
Case in point: Faison recounts watching from her kitchen win
dow as burglars broke into an empty rental across the street.
She quickly called the police, who caught the culprits.
Incidentally, the national land trust movement began in
southwest Georgia, rooted in the civil rights movement and
created in response to the plight of sharecroppers. Under the
original model, farmers owned and made decisions about land
communally. Despite this long history of land-based advo
cacy, restrictions on individual use of land remain a sensitive
issue in the South. But more and more rural property owners
see value in protecting their land from development. Georgia
has the third-fastest rate of farmland loss in the country, and
Stangle finds it very important to safeguard local land for food
production in the future. ALT has calculated, based on a UGA
study, that its 1,200 acres under easement provide $2 million
in ecosystem services to the public each year.
What's next for the Land Trust? Its first subdivision of new
affordable homes, Cottages at Cannontown, is being built in
East Athens, offering opportunities to build community on a
neighborhood scale. Acquiring land, whether from donations,
foreclosures, bargain sales or subdivisions, is a perpetual chal
lenge. Funding—none of which comes from local tax dollars—
is another pursuit. And finally, says Stangle, the challenge is
getting the message out. The Land Trust depends on support
from the community, and reaches out through a variety of
means: tours, open houses, events like the annual Harvest
Moon Dinner, and its member email list.
To Stangle, the goal is to help people see land as a commu
nity resource for everyone's quality of life, not just something
for those with means to buy and sell. "We want to build an
ethic of land stewardship," she says, "where we all see the
value of land and are conscious and thoughtful about how we
use it."
Katie Goodrum
8 FLAGPOLE.COM AUGUST 17,2011
KATIE GOODRUM
