Trust Montana hosted the Montana Shared Equity Housing Summit held earlier this month with approximately 60 attendees from across Montana (and beyond!) coming together for a day of education, collaboration and networking.
The broad term of “shared equity housing” refers to the array of programs that create long-term, affordable homeownership opportunities for families with modest incomes. Shared equity housing (SEH) programs include community land trusts, resident owned communities, deed restricted housing programs and limited equity housing cooperatives.
In the morning session of the Summit, we tuned in to a national perspective on innovations and opportunities in shared equity housing programs, a panel discussion about the great potential of a co-op/CLT housing model, and a roundtable discussion about secondary market concerns for SEH practitioners in Montana.
In the afternoon we learned about the NeighborWorks Montana Resident Owned Community (ROC) program, the first buyer-initiated community land trust program in Montana, and heard about how the law surrounding community land trusts has evolved over the years. We heard from developers about how practitioners can best cultivate partnerships with private developers, and heard from a local business owner who is building high quality, sustainable, and affordable prefabricated homes in Southwest Montana to address the shortage of missing middle housing in the state.
We left the Summit feeling energized and inspired by the great work people are doing across the state to tackle big problems with creative solutions! If you have any questions or would like more information, please reach out to Austin Wallis at [email protected] or (406) 201-5652.
We were joined by keynote speaker, Tony Pickett, CEO of Grounded Solutions Network. Tony has over 35 years of professional community development experience, including successful permanently affordable shared equity housing development and thought leadership; promoting inclusive housing policies, and, expanding the use of community land trusts for racial equity impact.
This event also included speakers from Grounded Solutions Network, Montana Housing, Montana Cooperative Development Corporation, Foothold Developers, NeighborWorks Montana, and Trust Montana.