Quarterly Newsletter - Q4 2019

Salerno Takes Center Stage with Groundbreaking Ceremony

Last month, the ICLT joined Chelsea Investment Corporation for an official groundbreaking ceremony at the site of our next great affordable housing project, Salerno, at Nightmist and Sand Canyon Avenue. We were joined by county and city officials, as well as executives from Families Forward and Chelsea Investment Corporation to mark the special milestone.

On schedule to be completed next fall, with first occupancy around December 2020, Salerno will offer affordable rents as low as $550 for a one-bedroom unit, $625 for a two-bedroom and $695 for a three-bedroom. Thirty-five of the homes will be reserved for those earning less than 30 percent of the area median income: 15 for veterans; 10 for individuals with developmental disabilities; and 10 for families at risk of homelessness. Like all ICLT homes, qualifying residents are subject to a lottery and first must register on our Interest List here: www.irvineclt.org/interest-list.

The project has been received with great enthusiasm by the community. The groundbreaking was covered by media, including NBC, the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register. To read about the event and other happenings with the ICLT, visit our newsroom at: https://www.irvineclt.org/news.php.

Veterans, who are interested in applying for residency, should contact the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs at the Community Resource and Referral Center in Santa Ana, phone: (844) 838-8300. People with developmental disabilities should contact the Orange County Regional Center at (714) 796-5100 and families at risk of homelessness should contact Families Forward at (949) 552-2727.

We were honored to receive the “No Place Like Home” recognition during September at the 8th Annual Housing Partner Appreciation Event hosted by Families Forward. During a reception at Wilcox Manor, ICLT’s community Parc Derian and C&C Development were recognized for providing access to stabilized housing for qualifying low-income families.

Thank you to sponsors Parcel Pending, Matrix Construction Services, California Apartment Association, Buffalo Maintenance, Inc., Apartment Association of Orange County and Fashion Furniture Rental.

Parc Derian is a four-story apartment complex with 80 units in the Irvine Business Complex. Sixteen of the apartments are set aside for veterans, as well as previously homeless families and people living with mental disabilities. Numerous amenities include social services such as health and education enhancement programming designed for Parc Derian residents.

A big legislative win for the ICLT and affordable housing statewide came down from Sacramento in October when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB-196 into law. The ICLT has championed this bill from its outset, and we are excited to see the impact it will have on affordable housing development going forward.

The measure grants property tax exemptions for community land trust-owned affordable housing developments during construction, with the caveat that any excused taxes will be retroactively owed if the project is not completed on time. This simultaneously removes a critical barrier to construction, while also incentivizing community land trusts to fulfill their commitments in a timely manner.

This is big news for all of California, but for ICLT it means we will soon be able to take our community development to the next level. With the funds freed up by this bill, we will be able to create even better communities, replete with higher unit counts, top-notch amenities and other extra touches that will ensure residents take pride in their homes.

It’s been a quarter full of speeches and conferences, but none were as near and dear to our hearts as the trip we took to Georgia for the Reclaiming Vacant Properties and Grounded Solutions Conference. While we were there, we visited New Communities, the grandfather of modern land trusts which was founded in Leesburg, Georgia in 1969 as the largest tract of land owned by African Americans. This land trust went on to inspire the hundreds of community land trusts that exist today, ourselves included. It also was a treat to meet Shirley Sherrod, who was a founding member of New Communities.

While celebrating the birth of the community land trust model, we hope that the work being done today by community land trusts everywhere will inspire a new generation of dedication to affordable housing nationwide.

Residents of new ICLT communities are chosen from project waiting lists that are generated from the ICLT Interest List. Once a person joins the project list, they will be eligible for a lottery drawing when new housing opens up – given that they meet the area’s median income restrictions for the property in question. Those who aren’t selected are kept on the project list for future openings.

IMPORTANT: The list is not first-come-first-served. The ICLT is required by the City of Irvine to select residents through lottery drawings, and no additional communication will raise one’s chances of being selected for housing.

For residents who are having trouble paying their utility bills, there are good programs available that can offer assistance. Funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Energy Region IX, and the California Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund,  Community Action Partnership of Orange County is an organization with a local office that can help eligible low-income households to manage and meet their immediate home heating and/or cooling needs.

It can also administer financial assistance to offset heating and/or cooling costs and improve household energy efficiency or in a crisis situation with utility payment assistance on either their electric or gas bill in Orange County.  Its local office is at 125 Technology Drive West, Ste. 200, in Irvine. For more information, call (714) 839-6199 or (800) 660-4232.