Trust Montana is always looking for new ways to partner with for profit and non profit builders that want to include permanently affordable lease-restricted units in their projects.
This type of situation can work in a number of ways:
The developer of the project can donate parcels of land to Trust Montana and receive charitable tax benefits, or Trust Montana can fundraise to purchase the land under all or part of a development.
Once the land is transferred to Trust Montana, the cost of land is taken out of the homebuyer’s purchase price, and the land is held in trust in perpetuity. The buyer and Trust Montana sign a ground lease that restricts the resale price to ensure the home will be affordable to all subsequent buyers.
Regardless of how the property is acquired by Trust Montana, our goal is to steward the home in partnership with the homeowners in perpetuity to ensure the homes are always re-sold at an affordable price to income-qualified households.
This kind of partnership is an effective way to incrementally add to the stock of affordable units in Montana by building on the momentum of the real estate market. If you are a builder and you have an idea that could bring more permanently affordable homes to the market, please get in touch!
Partners


Community land trusts are becoming more popular across the country as the affordable housing crisis increases in urgency. Many city governments are adopting policies that help to incentivize or pay for CLT home development.
Municipalities can partner with Trust Montana by donating land, providing subsidy to increase the affordability of a project, identifying prospective project sites and shepherding projects through subdivision, and by creating policies that incentivize builders to develop homes on CLT land.
Municipalities have the power to work with developers to increase the allowable density of a project or ease the permitting process in exchange for the builder agreeing to sell homes to a CLT at a subsidized price.
Partners
In 2019, Trust Montana and Habitat for Humanity of Gallatin Valley partnered to create the first Habitat for Humanity-community land trust home in the state.
The goals of the partnerships we enter into with Habitat affiliates are to 1) increase the length of time Habitat-built homes are affordable, and 2) leverage the resources of both the CLT and the Habitat affiliate in order to serve more people over time.
Since the first CLT-HFH home in the Gallatin Valley, Trust Montana has partnered with Habitat affiliates in East Missoula and Red Lodge, and is working on two new projects in Helena in 2022-2023.
Click here for more information.
Partners
Trust Montana is a non-profit 501©3 organization and receives private and federal grant funding to support development of new projects and general operations. Trust Montana has a small staff and a statewide board of directors with expertise in housing, finance, farming, and law. We are always happy to accept tax-deductible donations to support our work.
Our work has been supported by the following funders:


- The O. P. and W. E. Edwards Foundation
- The Llewellyn Foundation
- The High Stakes Foundation
- The Catholic Campaign for Human Development
- US Bank
- USDA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program
- The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust
- Clearwater Credit Union
- Montana Justice Foundation
- Otto Bremer Trust
- The Montana Healthcare Foundation
Some of our best partnerships are with other non-profits! Trust Montana is not a builder, and we aren’t farmers either – we excel at facilitating the legal documents that are required for preserving the affordability of homes and other properties.
Most development organizations do not want to take on the responsibilities involved with monitoring the affordability of housing or agricultural lands, but they see the value in permanent affordability of these vital community assets—so we take on the job of perpetual stewardship – often accepting land donations from other non-profits and entering legal contracts with the buyers of the affordable homes or farm buildings.
It’s a win-win: the non-profits get to stretch their subsidy dollars by utilizing our stewardship expertise, and we get to increase our organizational reach by adding more units around the state. Some of our non-profit partners include: Homeword Inc., Habitat for Humanity of Gallatin Valley, Missoula Food Bank and Community Center, and the Red Lodge Area Community Foundation.
Call us to talk about partnering for a more equitable Montana!
Partners
Partners
Partners

Ink Realty Group supports Trust Montana as we work to ensure more Montanans can access home ownership.