Grand Rapids Entire Community Housing Trust Organization wants people of all walks of life to be able to invest in themselves by owning their home, and to get returns on that investment when they want to find a new home.

Plans for GRECHTO are modeled after successful housing trusts implemented around the country. People will buy houses but not the land underneath them, saving them some costs while allowing the trust to build equity. The houses stay affordable because we contractually agree as such and set low-income requirements. The homeowners will be able to buy houses with low down-payments without paying private mortgage insurance. They will be able to take a portion of the gains when they sell the house to reinvest in their next home.

The planned breakdown is as follows:

Homeowners get back ...

• 100% equity from their mortgage
• 100% market rate value for capital improvements they made
• only 25% of the increase in the value of the house without improvements
• none of the land value increase

The Trust gets the remaining 75% increase of house value plus any land value increase.

What the trust does with its money:

• Buys more houses to sell affordably
• Helps homeowners who are falling behind on mortgage payments
• Pays workers for upkeep on the properties, to monitor homeowner contract compliance, and to manage resale of houses

GRECHTO would like to work with potential low-income homebuyers, active neighborhood association members, as well as sympathetic bankers and realtors. A community land trust is a group effort and the more people from the community who are involved and voicing their opinions and goals, the better.

Other goals for GRECHTO:

• Find unused properties such as motels or vacant housing which could be turned into housing for people experiencing homelessness
• Launch lease-purchase programs to help folks buy a home who have no down payment (similar to rent-to-own)