My clients Laura and Umar contacted me in mid-October because they had just been approved to purchase a home at Columbia Ecovillage through the local community land trust, Proud Ground. I absolutely love what Proud Ground does and any chance I get to work with a family who has been approved to purchase one of their homes I jump on the opportunity.
Land trusts provides permanently affordable home ownership opportunities for families making at or below 80% of the area median income level. The land trust legally splits the home from the land. The “land” remains in the trust in perpetuity, while the home can be bought and sold as long as the new homeowners make below the 80% median family income at the time of purchase. By taking the land value out of the equation, the price of the home remains affordable. Columbia Ecovillage is a multi-generational co-housing community in Cully made up of 37 condominiums and situated on nearly 4 acres of splendor. The units rarely become available, but earlier this year a unit did come on the market, and a couple of long term Columbia Ecovillage residents decided they wanted to have a family sized unit be part of Proud Ground. This couple purchased the unit and donated it to Proud Ground to sell, and bringing another housing unit into the land trust.
Umar and Laura had moved to China from Portland a couple of years ago when Laura got a job doing mental health work for an English-speaking school there. This past February, they decided to go to Cambodia for a 2-week holiday. While they were there, coronavirus starting surging in China and around the world, and their family wound up getting stuck in Cambodia and were not allowed to return to China. After weeks in SE Asia it became clear they would not be able to return to China to their home for an unknown amount of time- probably months. They decided to go with plan B which involved making their way back to Portland. They left behind most of their belongings in China, including work and personal computers, and someday they hope to return there to recover their stuff. Once they arrived back in Portland, thankfully they found a fully furnished apartment to land in. Laura was able to keep her job in China working remotely from Portland, but it did mean her hours were late given the time zone difference.
Umar is from Uganda and growing up in Uganda, daily life was lived more communally. When they heard about Proud Ground and found out about the unit for sale at Columbia Ecovillage, it seemed like the perfect fit. They stopped by and were welcomed in and given a tour by some fantastic residents there. They fell in love with the idea of moving into this village space with beautiful shared gardens, community spaces, a communal kitchen and large old home that the residents use for gatherings, meetings and socializing and being a part of a close-knit community. They applied with Proud Ground and were accepted into the program and the unit at Columbia Ecovillage was reserved in their names. And that’s when I entered the picture after Laura called me. We wrote up the offer, and of course it was accepted. As we were writing up the offer, Laura and Umar learned who the benevolent sellers were who purchased the unit to bring into the Proud Ground stable, and it turned out the sellers were the very same people who had given Laura and Umar and their 4 year old son a tour and spent time talking with them about the community, and it all made sense. Everything was smooth sailing until it came time for the final employment verification. With Laura’s employer based in China, it did make for some tense moments and caused a slight delay in closing getting that final verification, but in the end, the sale closed and Umar and Laura and their son joined Columbia Ecovillage as the newest residents.