UPMC makes no-interest loan to land trust
UPMC is providing the Oakland Community Land Trust a zero-interest, $500,000 loan over five years, plus a $40,000 operating grant, to continue its work to provide permanent affordable housing in the neighborhood.
The Oakland Planning and Development Corp. established the land trust in April in response to the formidable pressure that student rentals and a strong market put on affordable home ownership. It recognized that many owner-occupied homes, when sold, were being converted to rentals.
“This is huge of UPMC to come forward with this,” said Elly Fisher, Oakland Planning’s assistant director.
The money will enhance a revolving development fund that Oakland Planning uses to buy and renovate homes it places into the land trust. When the house sells, the revenue from the sale goes back into the fund.
A land trust owns the land and keeps control of future home sales to ensure that people who earn below the area median can sustain a mortgage. In this land trust, the qualifying incomes must be at or below 80 percent or the median $56,063.
“As a member of the Oakland Development Fund board, I am excited to build on the land trust’s momentum and leverage the current investments in affordable
housing in Oakland,” said John Krolicki, vice president of facilities and support services from UPMC.
Ms. Fisher said Oakland Planning has been in discussion with UPMC for some time regarding the direction of its support.
Two homes now for sale in Oakland will be land trust homes, 3159 Ellers St. and 3231 Parkview Ave., she said. Their listed prices are $143,000 and $179,000, respectively.
The goals are to have 50 properties in the land trust by 2022, 100 long term and to increase owner-occupancy to 50 percent in the targeted areas of West and South Oakland.
“The long-term goal is to have a stable, healthy neighborhood with a mix of affordable,” Ms. Fisher said.
Oakland Planning will place all the single-family properties it buys in the future into the land trust, she said.
Currently, six elder owner-occupiers are discussing moving their properties into the land trust while they continue to live in them, she said. Oakland Planning would pay them for the land, and when the owners decide to sell the house, the land trust would buy it, make any necessary repairs and sell to a qualified buyer.