California pledged $500 million to help tenants preserve affordable housing. They didn’t get a dime.

In summary

California allotted half a billion dollars to help community land trusts across the state. State lawmakers created the Foreclosure Intervention Housing Preservation Program in 2021. It was a watershed moment for community land trusts, nonprofits that purchase land and preserve it as permanently affordable housing by renting or selling the buildings on it to low- and moderate-income residents. Residents then manage the property cooperatively. But budget cuts and bureaucracy have land trust advocates back where they were in 2020: seeking state aid to preserve affordable housing.

Without state support on the horizon, community land trusts across California are now pooling their efforts to create a joint capital fund, powered by philanthropy and private banks, that could eventually provide low-interest loans to buy buildings like the one in Silver Lake.

They’re hoping banks will be attracted by the opportunity to fulfill some of their obligations under the federal Community Reinvestment Act, which requires financial institutions to prove they are meeting the credit needs of historically disadvantaged communities.

The goal is to create a one-stop shop for lenders who want to support community ownership, raising $20 million in 2025 and eventually growing that to $100 million that community land trusts could combine with public subsidies to buy properties, said Jazmin Segura of the Common Counsel Foundation, which is hosting the fund.