A blog post by Robin Mockenhaupt, VFN’s Director, Policy & Advocacy
Every one of us deserves a decent and affordable place to call home. Everyone needs a foundation to build a future. Everyone deserves an opportunity for a better life. Every family has a story.
These simple but profound words are the heart of the site visit I had the pleasure of making in June, to the Loudoun County Habitat for Humanity project done in partnership with the Virginia Statewide Community Land Trust (VSCLT). A modular house containing homes for two families – the Naz and Butt families – was almost completed when I visited the project.
The Loudoun Habitat offers a number of programs, including homeownership, home repair, housing and financial counseling, advocacy and connections to the global Habitat for Humanity Network. Two families were moving into the home in Leesburg last weekend, and they were active partners in the journey to owning the homes. They participated in a series of home buying classes and completed “sweat equity” by helping to build their home.
This project was funded in part by Virginia Housing, Northern Virginia Regional Commission, and Virginia Statewide Community Land Trust (VSCLT). VSCLT was founded by a group of Habitat for Humanity affiliates throughout Virginia. They wanted to pool their resources and expertise to better serve families in the long term by offering affordable housing options in perpetuity through the CLT model. The model secures subsidy indefinitely by restricting the future sales price of the home, ensuring that it will always be affordable. The VSCLT model allows local partners, like Loudoun Habitat, to enhance the work they already do in creating inclusive wealth building opportunities through homeownership, amplifying their impact.
At the closing of this Leesburg home, the land was transferred into the community land trust. The two new homeowners signed a lease with both Habitat for Humanity and the VSCLT. The new owners earn equity in the house over the years they live there, and when they move and sell the home, they take that equity with them. A predetermined resale value is applied that ensures the home remains affordable in perpetuity. The land remains in the trust and continues as an affordable option for new buyers. Here’s an article from Loudoun Now about the homecoming for two young families last weekend.
As a site visitor to the home, I was so impressed with the Habitat volunteers who were working in sweltering June heat to finish the homes and make them perfect for when the new homeowners moved in that weekend. Each room had a “punch list” of remaining items to be completed. An exposed board in the home was signed by all those who worked on the project, with messages of welcome and encouragement for the new homebuyers. I was also impressed with the Community Land Trust model, that allows wealth building, skills building, and stable housing for families, and an opportunity to build homes, communities, and hope. The statewide land trust currently has 10 permanently affordable homes in 2025, and as the need for affordable housing continues to rise across Virginia, it aims to add many more homes to the VSCLT in the years to come.
For more information, contact: Judy Singer, President and CEO, Loudoun Habitat for Humanity, jsinger@loudounhabitat.org; Michelle Winters, CEO, Virginia Statewide Community Land Trust, michelle.winters@vsclt.org.
To learn more about VFN’s most recent publication, Finding Your Lane: Housing Affordability Action Guide for Virginia Funders, click here.