Yellow Pages
A meeting about the Home Trust of Skagit, a community land trust that provides affordable home ownership opportunities to people who work and live in the community, is 6-8 p.m. Tuesday at the Depot Arts Center, 611 R Ave.
Members of the public are invited to attend and become voting members of the trust, a Skagit County Community Action Agency program.
“We are hoping to provide Anacortes residents with information about how permanently affordable home ownership opportunities can benefit our community as well as all of Skagit County’s communities,” said Carol Taylor of the trust’s outreach and education committee.
Speakers at the meeting are Carolyn Moulten and Lynn Christoferson. Now a resident of Anacortes, Moulten is a former Orcas Island OPAL Community Land Trust homeowner and housing assistant. She will share reflections on the land trust model from a homeowner’s perspective.
Christoferson, another Anacortes resident, will provide a presentation about how community land trusts work. Dave Malsed of Anacortes will be introduced as new HTS staff person.
Taylor said several of the Home Trust’s board members were part of the Affordable Housing Task Force convened in 2006 by Ian Munce, which recommended exploring the creation of a community land trust to provide sustainable affordable housing stock in the community.
“With the Anacortes Futures report lifting up the need for affordable housing, we of HTS are hoping to be part of addressing this need,” Taylor said.
The Home Trust of Skagit, a nonprofit organization, strengthens the community by holding in trust land for affordable housing and other community needs, balancing the multiple interests of homeowners, neighborhood residents and the county as a whole in serving as the steward for an expanding stock of permanently affordable, owner-occupied homes, she said.
Because the Home Trust of Skagit owns the underlying land and leases it to homeowners with an established resale formula, subsidized homes remain available for lower-income home buyers for generations to come. Preserving affordability requires long-term administration for eligibility, affordability and occupancy, while protecting subsidized homes against loss through deferred maintenance or foreclosure.
For more information, contact Malsed or Christoferson at 416-7585 or
Read more local news in the Skagit Valley Herald and the Anacortes American, or read it online in the E-edition
