Dear John, 

On behalf of the Grounded Solutions staff team, I want to express our collective thanks, excitement, and appreciation for each of the 200+ members who have quickly renewed or joined our network for the first time. If you haven’t already done so, please access our website membership page and join today.

I also want to extend a very warm welcome to over 55 first-time members, such as the Na Hale O Maui CLT in Hawaii, WEPOWER in St. Louis, and the national nonprofit Living Cities. Worth noting as well, is that approximately 1/3 of our current members self- identify as POC and/or POC-led. I’m especially thrilled to also have a significant number of mission aligned, highly valued, strategic partners as formal members this year including; NeighborWorks America, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, National Low Income Housing Coalition, and National Housing Trust. Working in coalition along with Habitat for Humanity, Enterprise Community Partners, the National Community Stabilization Trust and many others has directly resulted in a wider embrace of shared equity models, with increased resources and opportunities for training and education than Grounded Solutions can achieve alone.

For all those who may have missed our year end 2023 news and updates, please note that we have two amazing new board members joining us this year include:

• Practitioner Board member Jonathan Frederick, President and CEO Housing Alexandria - https://www.housingalexandria.org/team/
• At-Large Board member Jerry Maldonado, Vice President of Programs Policy Link - https://www.policylink.org/about/staff/jerry-maldonado

I’m equally pleased to announce our commitment to once again sponsor and participate in the annual member-led regional NW CLT Coalition Conference May 6-8 in Walla Walla, WA. I also had the honor of representing our network on March 20^th as the featured guest speaker for the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies in-person event - Meeting Our Housing Needs: Scaling the Impact of Community Land Trusts and Shared Equity Models

I’m also looking forward to joining all our executive staff team and board members for a special June retreat in Denver. Our generous partners at the Colorado Health Foundation have agreed to host that meeting, and our Champion member Elevation CLT will provide us with a project site tour in Denver’s historic Five Points neighborhood (formerly known as  “The Harlem of the West”) featuring their exciting new project - the Burell

Working together this year we must continue to cultivate a thriving and diverse ecosystem for Lasting Affordability that includes a wide range of activities and organizations committed to our values and goals. Consistent with our organizational purpose and current bylaws, Grounded Solutions must also continue to balance the many needs and interests of CLTs, Shared Equity Programs and Inclusionary Housing practitioners. Later this summer, our staff and board will begin the important work of crafting a new multi-year strategic plan for Grounded Solutions. Our process will include some reflection on the lessons, unforeseen challenges and strong progress made during the first eight years of our initial operations and programmatic focus. I’m quite certain the results of our new long range planning process will chart a path to even greater impact.

Case in point, in February the Puget Sound Business Journal announced that the Amazon Housing Equity Fund has deployed over $1.8 billion of its committed $2 billion investment goal a full two years ahead of schedule. That wonderful news includes $40 million in funding for our Grounded Solutions partnership with the National Housing Trust. Fueled by Amazon’s significant investment we are directly supporting and providing critical below market cost loan capital for Community Land Trust and other Shared Equity programs, such as specific Habitat affiliates. The result is that several of our members are better able to actively produce permanently affordable homeownership opportunities in 3 national markets; the Washington DC area, Nashville, and the Puget Sound region.

In closing, I want to express my deepest gratitude to each of our members who has been widely sharing and providing us all with access to compelling stories of their work outcomes and experiences. While only a few of those are included this quarter’s newsletter, due to our space constraints, our communications team will continue to proactively seek out your inspiring narratives of change and progress which are incredibly useful in our ongoing advocacy work. Stay tuned for more about that later this year.

Be well and let’s make Q2 a great one!

Champion Member Atlanta Land Trust recently broke ground on The Trust at Oakland City, which will build 21 brand-new town homes with lasting affordability. 
 

Lighthouse Beloved Community CLT recently secured $2.1 million in funding to start construction on 10 brand-new energy-efficient homes with lasting affordability.

The PBS show Life in the Heart Land recently featured Virginia Statewide Community Land Trust in a segment focused on CLTs are part of the lasting affordability solution and how Virginia Statewide CLT specifically aims to help those looking for affordable homes in rural Virginia. 

National Community Reinvestment Coalition recently released critical research on efforts to narrow the racial wealth gap titled The Racial Wealth Divide And Black Homeownership. The illuminating report shows that while Black households have increased their wealth, those gains have not impacted the racial wealth gap. 

Where we live matters.

We bring together an extensive network of partners and member practitioners from local communities who have a deep understanding of best practices in community land trusts, shared equity housing, local housing policies such as inclusionary zoning, and more.

At Grounded Solutions Network, we know what policies and strategies work to build and preserve housing opportunities, and we help communities use them.