Down Payments, Closing Costs and Repair Assistance!

Why was ACHT Created?

• Homeownership in the Adirondacks is being priced out of the reach of working families

• Through the initiative of Senator Little, the state budgeted $1M to be used by the "Adirondack Community Housing Trust" to reduce the cost of home purchases for families making less than 120% of area median income.

• The legislature requires that the future sales of these homes be controlled by the ACHT so that they will be passed on to other income-qualified families for affordable prices

How was ACHT created and who controls it?

• ACHT was organized by the Housing Assistance Program of Essex County, which had worked closely with Senator Little to secure the funding.

• ACHT is now incorporated as an independent not-for-profit corporation with a board of directors who members are drawn from the various parts of the Park.

• ACHT is being staffed by H.A.P.E.C. under the contract between the two organizations, but ACHT is fully controlled by its own board.

How does ACHT control the future sales of the homes it has made affordable?

• CHT retains ownership of the land on which the homes are located.  Homebuyers get a deed to the house and any other improvements on the land, and they get a 99-year renewable ground lease giving them secured long-term control of the land.

• The lease gives them most of the rights of conventional homeowners, but with a few limitations - one limitation being that when they want to sell the home they must either sell it back to the ACHT or sell it to another income-qualified family, and must sell it for a price that will be limited by a formula written into the lease.

• ACHT's reasale formula allows the seller to receive the amount they originally paid for the house, plus the value of any ACHT- approved capital improvements they have made at their own expense, plus 25% of the additional appreciation in the value they originally paid for but not the appreciation of that portion of the home's original market value that was paid for by ACHT).

• It means that the income of the household is less than a specified percentage of area median income (AMI), county by county, as determined by the US Department of Housing and Urban Renewal (HUD)

• ACHT expects to serve a range of income levels, so the percentages of AMI specified as the maximum allowable incomes for ACHT homebuyers will vary somewhat.  Homes that have been made affordable for very local income households will be limited to households on that income level in the future.  Homes that have been made affordable only for somewhat higher income households will be limited to households with comparable incomes in the future.

• Can homeowners leave their homes to their children?  To heirs outside of the family?  What if they want to leave the home to someone who is not income qualified?

• Homeowners can leave the 'asset value' of their homes to anyone they choose.

• If the heirs want to live in the home they inherit, they will be permitted to do so, even if they are not income qualified, if they are immediate member so the family.  Other heirs either must be income-qualified or must sell the home under the terms of the ground lease.

What kind of houses will be made available through ACHT?  Newly constructed homes?  Rehabilitated homes?  Homes sold in as-is condition?

• The first homes to be made available will be houses rehabilitated by non-profit developers, but plans are also moving forward for new construction that will be sold through ACHT.

• A "buyer-initiated" program has has been established whereby ACHT will work with prospective buyers to identify homes that are already on the market in a specified area and that are structurally sound and reasonably priced.  Income-qualified homebuyers will then be invited to choose among these homes.  ACHT will use its funds to cover enough of the price of each home to make it affordable for the purchasers, and in return will take title to the land and issue its standard ground lease to the homebuyer.

• The first community land trusts (CLT's) were developed in the 1970's and early '80's.  There are currently about 200 in the country, and the number is growing rapidly as more and more communities are concerned with preserving the affordable homeownership.

• Most of the nonprofits housing organizations in Vermont are organized as community land trusts and have been operating for some time in the way ACHT tends to operate.  Burlington's Champlain Housing Trust is more than 20 years old and is currently the largest CLT in the country.

• In New York, CLT's have been operated for more than 15 years in Albany, Schenectady and Syracuse.  In recent years, programs have been or are being established in other areas of the state.  There are currently 12 other CLT's in New York State.

Information provided by Adirondack Community Housing Trust, Emily L. Kilburn, Housing Trust Administrator, 103 Hand Avenue, Elizabethtown, NY 12932  P:  518-873-6688