First land trust house constructed
As the sun beat down on the corner of Deshler and Heyl avenues on the South Side, a construction crew counted off before raising the third quarter of a new modular home — the city’s first land trust property.
“It’s more like a barn-raising than a groundbreaking with everyone involved,” the Rev. John Edgar joked to the crowd assembled Thursday afternoon.
Edgar, the executive director of the nonprofit Community Development for All People, was instrumental in Mayor Andrew J. Ginther’s plan to turn the city’s land bank into a
land trust in an effort to help provide affordable housing in every neighborhood in Columbus.
The Central Ohio Community Land Trust was launched by the Franklin County Land Bank in early 2019. In March, the city committed $3.8 million to support the Central Ohio Community Land Trust, and those funds are being used to leverage other private and nonprofit funding sources.
The city also worked with Nationwide Children’s Hospital, which shared the mayor’s vision to preserve a sustainable, mixed-income South Side.
“This is our home, this is where we work, raise our families, hang out,” Nationwide Children’s CEO Tim Robinson said.
Robinson said the hospital decided to get involved because research shows that children are not only affected by medical care, but also by social determinants, such as feeling safe in their own homes.
Through the Central Ohio Community Land Trust, home buyers will own their own house, but the city will continue to own the land. This allows the city to control housing costs for the new owner and keep residents from being priced out of their neighborhoods.
Under the land trust model pilot program, between 40 to 50 houses will be built this year and next in four neighborhoods: the South Side, Franklinton, the Near East Side and Weinland Park.
Thursday’s work on the land trust modular home was just the first.
“We know gentrification takes place,” Ginther said. “We are trying to be thoughtful and figure out how to negate its negative impact and preserve our communities.”
Down the block, Margaret Robertson sat on her porch, watching the proceedings from a distance.
“Whatever they’re doing, I like it,” she said with a laugh. “I’ve never seen the mayor on the South Side before, so I think it’s a good sign.”
Robertson, 84, has lived in the same house in the 700 block of Deshler Avenue since July 1971. She said she has seen the neighborhood go through some rough changes as the original homeowners moved out, renters came in, prices dropped and violence and crime became more prevalent.
“But this is the biggest change yet,” she said. “A lot of that noise has slacked down ... there are less shootings, drug houses.”