About Us
Mission
To support the community and the economic vitality of our area by creating permanently affordable workforce housing for full-time residents.
Vision
- To foster permanently affordable, quality housing for full-time low- and moderate-income households by minimizing the comprehensive costs of housing over time.
- To inspire attractive, green structures with a light footprint on the land and with a priority of providing construction employment to the community.
- To help improve the quality and availability of affordable long-term rental housing, and to support the development of landlord/tenant “best practices.”
- To foster opportunities for community members to invest locally via individual loans to the trust for acquisition and construction.
- To advocate for systemic and public policy changes that enhance housing affordability and community vitality so that people at all stages of life can continue to live in our communities.
- To respond to community needs for short-term and emergency housing.
And through all of the above, to promote the economic vitality of our communities.
A Local Community Land Trust
NeahCasa is incorporated as a tax-exempt 501c3 Community Land Trust (CLT), as of January 2008. This means that NeahCasa is structured to hold land for houses in trust FOREVER for the benefit of the community. A CLT takes land cost out of the equation in perpetuity.
We can do one of the following:
- Own the house and make it available for an affordable rental.
- “Sell” the house via a 99-year ground lease to someone in the community. The ground lease can be renewed for an additional 99 years. It is inheritable and gives homeowners virtually the same bundle of ownership rights as market-ownership with certain resale restrictions we design in based on circumstances with the property. Any increase in equity is shared between the homeowner and the trust.
Because NeahCasa would own the property under the house in perpetuity, it keeps the land out of the rising real estate market. Only the house can be sold and the terms of that resale are controlled by the trust. Thus the trust preserves affordability for future buyers without requiring additional subsidies.
NeahCasa does not at this time have any land or houses in Trust, and indeed has never activated its CLT status by setting up membership meetings, etc.
However, it remains an option for future houses and/or land should the circumstances or funding, interest & property arise.
Geographical Boundaries
While our primary interest and focus are on the Nehalem Bay area, we are open to including all of Tillamook County and maybe even the whole North Coast within our scope so others don’t have to go to the trouble of starting their trust. We’ve recently learned that it is possible to form a separate Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) within the CLT structure to give other localities within a regional CLT some degree of autonomy and protection of assets.
Contact us if you live in a nearby community and want to explore the possibilities.
Potential Homeowners
There would be an agreement between the Trust and the homeowner about improvements, upkeep standards, and resale. Typically homeowners can recover their equity (including any improvements made) and realize a portion (typically 25%) of any increase in market value in the resale of the house. The land itself remains in the ownership of the Trust in perpetuity.
Help Us with Land Purchase
NeahCasa is open to individuals who are interested in helping the Trust purchase land in partnership with potential homeowners. Donations of funds and/or property to get us up and running, of course, would be ideal – and a Godsend.
We are also open to working from the model used in the purchase of Alder Creek Farm for the Lower Nehalem Community Trust were five private individuals purchased that conservancy property in 2002 for $200,000. They then held it for two years until LNCT could raise the money through grants and donations to purchase it from them. In that case, the investors chose not to receive interest on their funds. However, NeahCasa envisions creating arrangements where investors would make a reasonable return on their investments.
Check out more information on our site about Community Land Trust model and CLTs elsewhere.