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PRIEST RIVER - Kaniksu Land Trust (KLT), a Sandpoint based conservation organization, is working on affordable housing. In July 2024, KLT funded a six-parcel plot of land within Priest River city limits. With six buildable lots, water and sewer service, sidewalks, carports, and house plans for 1,500 square-foot, 3 bedroom/2 bathroom homes in place, this parcel that is located adjacent to a recent housing development. It is exactly what KLT and its housing committee were looking for, KLT announced in a news release.
The trust will offer a 99year renewable lease on the land and the homes can be sold or passed on to family as long as the succeeding owners meet the CLT criteria. Homeowners can earn equity capped at 2.5% per year, according to the news release. Buyers must live in and derive a minimum of 67% of their income from a five-zip code boundary in the Priest River area.
How did KLT decide to work on affordable housing? The trust saw how the housing crisis was impacting land protection efforts. As more rural lands were sold to developers for housing projects, open space, family farms, and other vital landscapes were disappearing. Concern for the ability to sustain the rural character of the area was growing.
KLT Executive Director Katie Cox said the trust didn’t know at first if they should work on affordable housing.
“When we first started talking about this as a Board, we asked, ‘Do we have a role to play?’ and the board tasked me with going out in the community to understand what organizations were playing a part in finding a solution,” Cox said in the news release.
Cox reached out to local and regional organizations to gauge interest and capacity for implementing a proven model for providing affordable homeownership to local, working residents that would allow them to earn equity without contributing to rising real estate costs. One idea stood out, using a community land (CLT) trust to buy land.
About 40 years ago, a housing model began to quietly appear in the United States that held promise for reducing the cost of homeownership. The community land trust, also known as a community housing trust model has been at work in more than 400 communities across the US since then.
