The Bolinas Community Land Trust is partnering with Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco to provide local affordable housing for purchase, marking the first time the national organization has partnered with a community land trust, and the first time Bolinas land trust homes will be available for purchase.
Last month, the Board of Supervisors approved two $400,000 grants from the county’s affordable housing fund and the Measure W community housing fund to help Habitat for Humanity facilitate the purchase of four prefabricated homes on Aspen Road and Overlook Drive.
The land trust, which owns and developed the two properties, will sell the land to Habitat and provide local engagement and asset management. Habitat will complete the property development, work with qualified applicants and provide financial assistance for the future homeowners.
The homes will be offered through tenancy-in-common agreements. Habitat will own the land and offer the homeowners renewable and inheritable 99-year leases that provide most of the rights of conventional home ownership except for certain use and resale restrictions.
Arianne Dar, the land trust’s president, explained that no organizations outside of San Francisco provide loans for tenancy-in-common arrangements, so involving the larger organization was essential. “Partnering with Habitat is really groundbreaking because they write their own loans as opposed to residents having to apply for one from a bank,” she said. “Their involvement is crucial to this project.”
The Overlook Drive lot was gifted to the land trust in 2017, while the Aspen site was purchased for the price of the water meter, $300,000, later that year. Originally, Bolinas architect Steve Matson had designed a home for the Overlook lot, but the process of acquiring permits took over a year and the estimate for construction was cost-prohibitive, Ms. Dar said. So she approached Maureen Sedonaen, the C.E.O. of Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco and a former Muir Beach resident, to discuss how the two organizations could collaborate.
“We thought about setting up our own land trust over the hill but, as a former West Marin resident, I know the importance of local guidance cannot be understated,” Ms. Sedonaen said.
The project consists of four three-bedroom, two-bath homes built by Villa Home. The homes cost half of what it would have cost to build them from scratch in Bolinas, and they came with more amenities, Ms. Dar said. Prefab and modular homes are also better for the environment, she added: “I think it’s the wave of the future for all housing.”
The price differential between the prefab homes and the original designs was what allowed the project to get approval by the county, added Ms. Dar.
The homes are very similar in appearance, with nine-foot ceilings and lots of windows that make them feel bright and airy despite their compact sizes of 1,200 and 1,000 square feet. Construction on the Overlook project is complete, and the homes now await electrical installation from PG&E. Online waitlist applications are now open through the B.C.L.T.’s website; houses are expected to be sold before the end of the year.
The coastal permit for the Aspen lot will be approved in October. Anyone opposed to the project will have the normal appeal period in which to object, but under the state’s Housing Accountability Act, unless a housing development will cause “specific adverse public health and safety impacts,” counties cannot outright deny projects.
A vetting process for Aspen applicants will start in the spring, Ms. Sedonaen said. The homes will be available for purchase at the end of the fiscal year in June.
Under the deed agreements that Habitat will formalize with homeowners, when residents wish to relocate, Habitat has the first right of repurchase and will buy the house back for the price it was purchased and make necessary repairs. While owners do not build equity through property value increases, they are reimbursed for what they paid.
“If homeowners pay $2,000 a month for 10 months and then are ready to relocate to market-rate homes, they leave with $20,000 for a down payment,” Ms. Dar said.
Homeowners will receive a financed mortgage at 30 percent of their monthly income with no interest and no down payment. To qualify, applicants must have a household of at least three people and earn 50 percent to 80 percent of the area median income range, which in Marin is $166,000 for a family of four. Homeowners will be required to receive financial literacy education and complete 250 hours of sweat equity, such as building fences and decks.
The $400,000 from the Measure W fund is one of the largest grants West Marin’s transient occupancy tax has provided, second only to the $625,000 granted to another of the Bolinas Community Land Trust’s projects, at 31 Wharf Road. In the past, the county has invested an average of $50,000 per unit of affordable housing, but county staff say that number does not reflect the cost of developing and permitting homes in West Marin.
“It’s a lot of money, but Habitat for Humanity has shown they can get the job done for a project of this scope. And the [Bolinas] land trust has done their share of heavy lifting,” said Scott Hochstrasser, who sits on the Measure W working group. “The land trust did a great job of putting together a shovel-ready project.”
Operating since 1982, the Bolinas Community Land Trust has six operating properties housing 25 households in studio spaces, shared living and family-sized homes. The group has a long-term goal of creating 50 affordable housing units in Bolinas.