The year 2010 was one of significant chal lenges and accomplishments for the Island Housing Trust. The accomplishments include the successful completion of 12 green affordable homes, and the reassessment and development of governance practices and a strategic business plan. The challenges include clarifying the trust’s value to the community and its role in relation to other housing organizations.

So, what exactly does the trust do and what is its value to the community? The trust provides permanently affordable housing solutions for working Island families and individuals as:

• Land Steward — the trust’s nationally recognized ground lease model helps ensure homeowners’ success and the home’s permanent affordability through on-going support and stewardship services. This hands-on approach has been shown to keep foreclosure rates far lower than neighboring market-rate houses, and ensures that the community’s initial investment is retained and passed along from one homeowner to the next.

• Nonprofit Developer — the trust provides a valuable service to Island towns by developing ownership and rental housing more cost effectively and efficiently, helping to keep our economy stronger by creating more local jobs without costly public procurement requirements. Although the trust acts as developer, half of its properties have been transferred from Island towns, other housing organizations and private developers.

• Housing Specialist — the trust has begun offering unique professional services to towns and housing organizations. One example is HomeTracker, a computerized workflow and asset management system used by the trust to properly manage, monitor and measure the performance of affordably restricted properties that together represent millions of dollars of private and public investment.

Yes, but what’s the relationship of the trust to Island towns and local housing organizations? Working with limited resources and a staff of one, the trust has successfully partnered with Island towns and other local housing organizations to build and/or sell 42 homes over the past five years. These partnerships have included:

• Towns transferring land to the trust to develop homes more cost effectively and efficiently and to ensure long-term stewardship under the trust’s ground lease;

• Working with the Dukes County Regional Housing Authority which manages trust-owned rental properties, organizes homebuyer trainings, income qualifies homebuyers and administers lotteries;

• Joint land acquisitions with the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank to lower land costs for housing while also conserving land, known as “conservation-based affordable housing;”

• Collaborating with Habitat for Humanity of Martha’s Vineyard to build homes for lower income households on land transferred to the trust to ensure permanent affordability; and

• Investing $12.5 million dollars into the local community and economy, including $1.4 million in town Community Preservation Act funds, $2.4 million in Island Affordable Housing Fund grants, and $822,000 in state grant funding over the past five years.

Certainly the accomplishments of 2010 and those of the past five years could not have been possible without these partnerships and support.

So what about questions of transparency and accountability? With the goal of creating greater transparency and accountability, the trust formed an ad hoc committee that included respected community members. Throughout 2010 the trust worked with Lenny Jason, Susan Wasserman and Joe Sollitto. The committee’s work resulted in important changes to the trust’s bylaws and policies (available online at ihtmv.org), including:

• Open meetings, posted in town halls and on the trust’s Web site.

• Autonomy from the Island Affordable Housing Fund board.

• Board representation from each Island town, the Dukes County Regional Housing Authority, trust homeowners and the community-at-large.

• Conflict of interest policy that bars contracts with board members.

In addition, the trust continues to:

• Disclose its annual financial statements to Island towns and post it on its Web site.

• Publicly advertise its request for proposals to seek qualified competitive bids.

But how does the trust propose to be financially viable for the long-term? During these difficult economic times, the trust has been working to develop and diversify its revenue sources. The trust’s business plan is to achieve operational self-sufficiency over the next five years by building and diversifying its revenue sources from:

• Ground lease fees — as the number of trust-managed properties increases.

• Project fees — to cover the trust’s project development overhead and administrative costs.

• Professional services — as a housing specialist to towns and other housing organizations.

• Foundations, state and federal grants — for project and program funding.

• Supporting members — to supplement other sources of revenues for working capital and project specific funding.

As part of this effort, the trust has been selected to be part of a national Ford Foundation funded pilot project to test the HomeTracker workflow and asset management database. The trust was also selected to receive technical assistance from the National Community Land Trust Network to further develop a plan for long-term organizational sustainability.

The value of the Island Housing Trust is its long-term commitment and proven track record of creating and managing permanently affordable workforce housing efficiently and cost effectively. Investing in the Island Housing Trust not only helps create a more vibrant and sustainable Island community, but also ensures these investments are managed locally and accomplished in partnership with island towns.

 

Philippe Jordi is executive director and Richard Leonard is chairman of the Island Housing Trust. This was prepared for the trust’s annual report.