JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – After more than a year of planning, Mayor Lenny Curry launched the Jacksonville Community Land Trust (JCLT) on Thursday as one solution to the affordable housing issue.
The community land trust will help neighborhoods resist gentrification, provide community members with a meaningful voice in development and enable low and moderate-income households to build generational wealth, according to a release from the City of Jacksonville.
Related: Jacksonville mayor’s budget to include upgrades to roads, parks | Solutionaries tackles affordable housing crisis
“Strong, financially stable families and neighborhoods are the key to a great city,” Mayor Curry said. “I am proud to share that the City of Jacksonville is the first city in the state of Florida to have passed the first-look ordinance which allows the JCLT to have first right of refusal of tax-reverted, municipal-owned real estate.”
The City is also committing $250,000 to fund JCLT operations. The budget will include upgrades to roads and parks. City records show the local government signed a $170,000 contract in 2021 with the non-profit Florida Housing Coalition to help implement the project.
Steve Kelley, inaugural JCLT Board Chair, said the community land trust allows for those who make under a certain amount of money to buy a home that sits on city land.
“By taking the land out of the equation, the cost of the home is lessened,” Kelley said. “The JCLT will acquire land, housing and other critical community-serving real estate and steward them to ensure they remain affordable in perpetuity,” Kelley said.
He said the program is for those making 80% of the area median income. In Jacksonville, that’s a median income of less than $31,000 a year.
As for how to apply, Kelley said, “Primarily that answer will come from the mortgage underwriters who will actually be approving, or underwriting and approving the homebuyers for these homes.”
He said initially some of the lots will be on the northside, but they could be anywhere within the city limits.
The JCLT will create homeownership options for low- and moderate-income individuals and families in Jacksonville, improve neighborhood stability, promote economic development and build wealth while preserving affordable homes for future generations, a release said.
Want to learn more? There will be an open house and info session on the land trust on July 19 at 5:30 p.m. at the Beaver Street Enterprise Center. Click here to learn more about the Jacksonville Community Land Trust.