Jovan Jiron and his fiancee, Jeannette Torres, are the newest homeowners to purchase “forever affordable” homes through the Milwaukee Community Land Trust.
“It’s a dream come true to be able to move into a home that was affordable for us in a community that we already live in, serve and love,” Torres said
Torres is a community organizer at Southside Organizing Center and Jiron is employed with Riverworks Development Corp.
Their home in Clarke Square was one of five renovated in partnership with the development firm One 5 Olive through the city’s Homes MKE program and made available through the Milwaukee Community Land Trust, or MCLT.
MCLT makes homes permanently affordable to low-income buyers using a community land trust model.
About the land trust model
The land trust model legally splits the home from the land to achieve the “forever affordable” component and provides future owners with the same affordable homebuying opportunity.
Torres and Jiron are technically leasing the land for 99 years, and when they sell the house, they can receive a small annual gain and the amount they paid down on the mortgage.
Capping the return allows MCLT to “recycle” the initial subsidy by passing it on to the next homeowner in the form of a reduced purchase price.
“This method sells the homes for under-market value and ensures the homes stay affordable in the years to come,” said Lamont Davis, executive director of MCLT.
He said while people were initially skeptical of the process, he’s glad to see Milwaukee communities begin to support the model.
“We initially had a lot of folks who didn’t like the resale restrictions that we had in place,” Davis said. “But what I think we found is that this is not just a movement for the current homeowner, this is a movement for future homeowners, and it’s also a great hedge against displacement and gentrification.”
A growing list of affordable homes
The five recently remodeled homes increased MCLT’s portfolio from four to nine.
Community land trusts offer programs that allow people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford property a way to buy and maintain homes.
MCLT hopes its efforts will become a model that will help fill the affordable housing gap for Black and Brown families in Milwaukee, Davis said.
While creating affordable homeownership opportunities is the primary goal, Davis said this model serves the entire community.
“I remember when this was a blighted space where people would sleep when it was cold,” Ald. Jose Perez said. “This process has not only created a home for a family, it has returned a home to its neighborhood.”
The land trust work is made possible through partnerships with local groups like the Community Development Alliance and VIA CDC.
Funders include the Zilber Family Foundation; Northwestern Mutual; Otto Bremer Trust; LISC Milwaukee; City of Milwaukee’s Department of City Development; Greater Milwaukee Foundation; Catholic Campaign for Human Development; and Associated Bank.
For more information
You can go to MCLT’s website or follow the group’s socials to learn more about the program.
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