GREENFIELD — The Franklin County Community Land Trust recently received a $40,000 grant from the Root Causes Solutions Exchange Partnership to kick-start the organization’s efforts to make local housing more affordable.

“The goal is to make housing a non-speculative thing,” said Franklin County Community Land Trust Clerk Nevin Murray, who is also one of the founding members.

The Root Causes Solutions Exchange Partnership, an effort under the umbrella of the state Department of Public Health, aims to build local capacity to implement strategies that reduce a community’s vulnerability to COVID-19. It does this by working with organizations that reduce the harmful impacts of the social determinants of health.

One of the main social determinants identified is the housing crisis. The Franklin County Community Land Trust received this grant for technical assistance to get its organization off the ground to combat this problem.

Franklin County Community Land Trust began in June 2021, having been born out of the “Housing is a Human Right” series of forums hosted by Greening Greenfield and Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution.

A community land trust, operating as a nonprofit entity, secures and maintains land for perpetual community benefit, enabling residents to own or lease homes while fostering sustainable, equitable development and preventing dramatic rises in housing costs.

“Our goal is to place deed restrictions to allow for the affordability to transfer from new owner to new owner, with the overarching goal to create a large enough movement of these types of shared equity and other forms of shared ownership that people can move with less overhead,” said Franklin County Community Land Trust Treasurer Martin Omasta.

According to the UMass Donahue Institute’s Pioneer Valley Housing Report Phase II, Franklin County will need 2,300 more housing units by 2025. The report also found that 52% of renters and 32% of homeowners spend more than 30% of their income on housing. The median home sale price has risen by 21% from 2019 to 2021 and has increased even more since then.

Citing information from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Omasta said without the availability of affordable homes to buy, the national economy is missing out on $2 billion worth of potential annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth because people are unable to live near their desired jobs and the elderly are being kicked out of their homes due to rising costs.

Community land trusts, also known as housing trusts, are growing in popularity. There is a strong coalition of them in the eastern part of the state, the Greater Boston Community Land Trust. There are an estimated 220 such entities in the country, according to All-In Cities. Murray explained that because community land trusts are less volatile and susceptible to market bubbles than the open market, they suffered less than the rest of the country during the 2008 financial crisis and many were able to grow tremendously, cashing in on the lower housing prices.

There is another community land trust in Franklin County based in Ashfield called Valley Community Land Trust, which was incorporated in 1977 and has more than 200 acres of land. According to Murray, the Ashfield trust does not currently have the capacity for growth. Wanting to expand to more populated areas of the county like Greenfield and Turners Falls, Franklin County Community Land Trust founders felt they needed to start a new organization. Throughout the process, the two groups have consulted each other.

Currently, the Franklin County Community Land Trust does not own any land, but Murray said they hope to own their first piece of land by the end of the year.

About half the money from the $40,000 grant has gone toward consulting fees to Burlington Associates, a national consulting cooperative founded in 1993.

The Franklin County Community Land Trust is working to create a business plan with a variety of groups, including Valley Community Land Trust, Amherst Community Land Trust and the Franklin Regional Council of Governments. They hope to finalize a plan of action, timeline and effectiveness measurements following a multi-day retreat that is being planned for February or March.

The organization also accepts donations of land or deed restrictions. Omasta and Murray said many community land trusts start with donations, typically from core members, as was the case in Amherst.

“This is all about developing an ecosystem,” Omasta said, “and finding a way to create a gentler economy.”

Bella Levavi can be reached at blevavi@recorder.com.