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 Permanent Real Estate Cooperative, VHC members began laying the groundwork to establish a local housing coop early in the covid pandemic. They’ve also been active in the Valley Alliance for Land Equity, a regional housing and land justice collaboration of new, existing, and forming community land trusts (CLTs), CLT-adjacent entities, and Equity Trust staff.
In 2024, VHC coordinated the purchase of a 32-acre parcel in Greenfield, MA by Valley Community Land Trust (VCLT). VHC entered into a ground lease to establish the coop in the two duplexes there. VCLT stewards the land and permanently protects its affordability.
Equity Trust joined Coop Fund of the Northeast to co-finance VHC’s purchase of the duplexes and we are also administering a separate community-funded participation loan that is being used for capital improvements. A local architect, Noble Home, acquired a ground lease at the same time and plans to build an environmentally sensitive small home community on part of the land.