Trust Montana

Building livable communities by preserving land and homes people can afford

Consulting Services

Using the CLT tool, Trust Montana helps communities create homes and farms Montanans will be able to afford now and into the future. Our staff has more than 20 years of experience in the field, and has spent much of that time developing new ways to create permanently affordable properties for Montanans.

Trust Montana partners with non-profit organizations, municipalities, school districts, and developers to create permanently affordable projects. We also take on consulting contracts to assist communities and groups who want to make homes or farms affordable for their residents.  

A consulting arrangement could include:

  • Community meetings about the CLT tool
  • Provision of model documents to ensure long-term affordability of a project or program
  • Grant writing to bring subsidy to a project to make homes or farms affordable
  • Provision of continuing education sessions for local real estate professionals
  • Homebuyer education about CLTs
  • Education about CLT closings for real estate professionals
  • Hourly contracts to assist in setting up an affordability program
  • Long-term stewardship of permanently affordable homes

How Does a CLT Work?

The CLT model is used nationwide to create permanently affordable land-based assets – most often homes and farmland. This is accomplished by 1) subsidizing the price of the property with grants or donated land, 2) holding the land in the community land trust permanently, and 3) selling the improvements on the land to income qualified households. 

Trust Montana can take on a variety of roles to assist your community in creating a CLT program. 

  1. LANDOWNER AND STEWARD: You may want to develop a project in your community and then have Trust Montana’s staff do the work of ensuring permanent affordability. With this option, a community can have any number of CLT projects without having to start and staff a new non-profit entity.  
  2. CONSULTANT: If your community group has enough capacity, you may want to start your own non-profit CLT and use Trust Montana as a consultant to get started.
  3. CONTRACTOR: If you want to create a project that will be permanently affordable but you don’t have the staff capacity to do the work, Trust Montana can take on short-term contracts to complete specific tasks. This may include reviewing homeowner eligibility applications, marketing a home for sale, educating prospective buyers, and overseeing closing details.

For more information about consulting or partnering with Trust Montana, contact Dawn Conklin, ED, at (406) 898-7636.