College Park, Maryland – The College Park City-University Partnership announces a $75,000 award from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government’s Housing Affordability Planning Program, a grant program backed by Amazon Housing Equity Fund. Funding will be used to support the launch of the Community Preservation Trust, a Housing Trust for College Park.
PRESS RELEASE
CONTACT Valerie Woodall
845-649-2477; vwoodall@collegeparkpartnership.org
June 9, 2022
The College Park City-University Partnership announces a $75,000 grant from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) Housing Affordability Planning Program. This new program awarded 10 local planning initiatives and development projects which address the need for more housing, affordable to those with lower incomes near transit. This grant is administered by COG and backed by the Amazon Housing Equity Fund.
“The College Park City-University Partnership is thrilled to be receiving this grant from COG’s Housing Affordability Planning Program to further develop and launch the College Park Community Preservation Trust, said Valerie Woodall, Interim Executive Director, “these funds are key to establishing this important new program to preserve and stabilize neighborhoods and address affordability.”
As the home of the University of Maryland – the state’s flagship campus, and Prince George’s County’s largest employer – the availability of affordable housing is of high importance to the city, region, and state. Achieving this goal is difficult due to the limited supply and high cost of housing in College Park. The significant number of undergraduate students creates a skewed market where single-family houses are converted into group rental housing. To remedy this, the City of College Park, the University of Maryland, and the City-University Partnership adopted as part of the joint Vision 2030 the creation of the Community Preservation Trust.
The Community Preservation Trust is a housing trust that provides a long-term intervention to stabilize our neighborhoods and address affordability by purchasing homes and placing them into a Shared-Equity Homeownership Program for income-eligible households. This model reduces the sales price by holding the land and establishing a 99-year ground lease. It ensures owner-occupancy through the ground lease. It maintains long-term affordability because when the house is sold, the trust continues to hold the land, and another homebuyer purchases the home. As the value of the property appreciates, sellers retain a portion of the market appreciation. This builds equity, as the seller retains some of the wealth built over time from the value of their home.
“With our community’s proximity to transit and jobs, College Park is a key location for the region,” said Valerie, “we have seen significant revitalization and investment in our community, but house prices are rising. College Park’s success is a good thing for our community and region, but we want to ensure that people of all incomes can live and work in our community.”
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The College Park City-University Partnership is the nonprofit local development corporation jointly sponsored by the City of College Park and the University of Maryland. The Partnership recognizes that the success of the City of College Park and the University of Maryland are linked together. It works in dynamic collaboration to creatively and effectively facilitate cooperative efforts that achieve shared community purposes. The Partnership advances initiatives and policies to make College Park a more thriving, equitable and sustainable community for all.