Lawrenceville Community Land Trust

The Lawrenceville Community Land Trust

The Lawrenceville Community Land Trust is the first permanently affordable community land trust in the City of Pittsburgh.

Background

The Lawrenceville Corporation (LC) is a not-for-profit community development corporation that serves Upper, Lower, and Central Lawrenceville. Over the last decade, housing values in Lawrenceville have steadily increased, making homeownership in the neighborhood unobtainable for some long-time Lawrenceville/City of Pittsburgh residents. To create affordable homeownership and ensure that the homes remain affordable for many generations to come, the LC created the City's first Community Land Trust.

What is a Community Land Trust?

A Community Land Trust (CLT) is a way for a not-for-profit organization to own the underlying land but allow the homes to be sold to and individually owned by low-income/moderate-income homebuyers. Because CLTs retain ownership of the underlying land, CLTs can record deed restrictions regarding the income levels of households that can purchase the homes upon resale to ensure that the housing remains permanently affordable.

Development

Construction financing for the development closed in the summer of 2017. The new construction is modular in nature. The modular boxes were delivered to the site in September 2017 and construction is anticipated to be completed by January or February 2018.

Results

Seven permanently affordable for-sale homes will be created in Upper Lawrenceville. The homes will be affordable to households at or below 80 percent AMI. In Pittsburgh, a family of four must make less than $58,100 to be eligible to purchase one of the CLT homes.

Facts

• Developer: Lawrenceville Corporation
• Contractor: EcoCraft Homes
• Architect: Rothschild Doyno Collaborative
• Total Development Cost: $2,161,500
• URA Financing: $674,620
• Permanently Affordable For-Sale Housing