We don’t share often enough with others how much they inspire us. Yet, for the Equity Trust Loan Fund team it’s sometimes difficult to hold back effusive appreciation for the farmers and visionaries creating the West Branch Commons.
West Branch Commons (WBC) is a newly formed community land trust incubated by Catskills Agrarian Alliance (CAA). CAA is a collaborative …
Valley Housing Coop (VHC) is a cooperative housing community formed in Franklin County, Massachusetts. They are “dedicated to building and maintaining a sustainable community to provide safe, decent, and affordable housing for members and tenants by creating an alternative to renting or owning, and taking land out of the speculative real estate market.” Inspired by the work of East Bay …
The Southeastern Connecticut Community Land Trust (SE CT CLT) is establishing itself as a serious and creative land steward in New London County. In 2023 we approved two Fund for Land Equity loans to finance SE CT CLT property acquisitions expanding the organization's portfolio. 
One of the foundational principles of the Equity Trust mission is that a great deal of the economic value of property comes from that property being part of a community rather than being inherent in the property itself. It’s also the basis of the community land trust movement: lower the price of a home so that a buyer pays only …
Smith Hill CDC is a community development corporation focusing on affordable housing and community services in a multiracial/multiethnic neighborhood adjacent to the state capitol building in Providence, Rhode Island. They have completed numerous projects offering both rental and homeownership opportunities for low- and moderate-income families and individuals, primarily by redeveloping blighted buildings and lots. Two current projects involve the conversion …
New London Landmarks is a historical preservation nonprofit whose latest project is the renovation of the longtime home of Linwood Bland, Jr., founder and past president of the New London, Connecticut branch of the NAACP and author of a memoir of the Black experience of the mid-to-late 20thcentury in that city. When complete, New London Landmarks will break the link …
Since 2010, we have offered financing to charitable projects in Southeastern Connecticut, often involving the acquisition of property. Until recently, we did not have a local partner positioned to ensure the permanent affordability of the properties that have benefited from Equity Trust Fund loans, though we were happy to make those loans anyway because of the borrowers’ importance to …
Over twenty years ago, a group of residents in a small brick building in downtown Turners Falls, Massachusetts contacted Equity Trust (then located in Voluntown, Connecticut) for help. The building, home to two families and the Brick House, a community resource center, was on the market, and the residents were concerned that it would be sold to an investor with …
The Coalition for Occupied Homes in Foreclosure (COHIF) is a Boston-based coalition of more than two dozen tenant, community, nonprofit, legal, and government agencies and organizations that came together in 2008 to work on keeping homeowners and tenants in their homes during and after the foreclosure process. It seeks to promote household and neighborhood stability and resident and community control …
The Woodland Community Land Trust operates in an impoverished Appalachian community in northeastern Tennessee, where access to land and political and economic power has been tightly controlled by a few major extractive companies. For almost forty years, Woodland and its sister organizations, Woodland Community Development Corporation and Clearfork Community Institute, have acquired 450 acres of land and become involved in …
This loan financed some predevelopment work on what was planned to be the first cohousing community in Connecticut. It would have included thirteen affordable units among the thirty planned, as well as commercial agricultural land that could be made available on a long-term lease using the Equity Trust model. Unfortunately, when construction was almost complete, the community’s …
H.O.M.E, Inc. (originally Homeworkers Organized for More Employment) in Orland, ME, was organized in 1970 when a local shoe manufacturer closed its doors. Under the leadership of Sister Lucy Poulin, H.O.M.E emerged as a craft collective to generate home-based work and market the products as a source of income for the women who had been doing skilled piecework for the …
Equity Trust’s loan to the Newtown Florist Club, in Gainsville, GA, enabled them to purchase four lots to build four CLT homes for low-income families as part of a long-term effort to strengthen and care for their community.
Sixty years ago, a group of African American women established the Newtown Florist Club to provide aid to neighborhood families during bereavement. …
Three Springs is a twenty-five-year-old intentional community near the geographic center of California. It holds about 160 acres of land in common “to promote and demonstrate ecologically sustainable living and agricultural practices” and “to protect the unique flora and fauna of the Sierra Nevada foothills.” Members grow flowers and native plants to sell at farmers markets and to local restaurants; …
The New London (Connecticut) Homeless Hospitality Center (NLHHC) is a non-profit human services agency whose mission is “to serve as a bridge out of homelessness by helping our guests pursue their self-selected path to permanent housing.”
Begun as a coalition of citizens, faith communities, and service organizations, the Homeless Hospitality Center has operated a daytime hospitality center and overnight shelter since 2007, and also offers employment and health care assistance. Holyoke Community Land Trust, in Holyoke, Massachusetts, provides quality homes to low-income families, with a commitment to increasing resident homeownership. Residents own their own homes, but the land beneath is held by the nonprofit, to ensure owner-occupancy and on-going affordability. Formed in 1992, after a recent several-year period of dormancy it was reinvigorated in early 2010. A cash-flow loan from …
