We received a $200,000 grant from the Tides Foundation.

Silver City, NM, July 18, 2024

Crooked Forest Institute recently received a $200,000 grant from the Tides Foundation. Crooked Forest Institute is a Silver City-based 501c3 non-profit organization that is focussing on building affordable housing on a local Community Land Trust. The Tides Foundation envisions a world of shared prosperity and social justice founded on equality and human rights, sustainable environment, quality education, and healthy individuals and communities. Since 1976, Tides has partnered with innovative organizations to accelerate the pace of social change and solve society’s toughest problems. Crooked Forest Institute is proud to have been selected as an organization that contributes to that legacy.

With the generous support in the form of this substantial unrestricted grant, Crooked Forest Institute plans to finalize the purchase of 32 acres for their education campus in Grant Count, NM, to establish a solid fiscal foundation for their future programs and to develop the capacity to have a meaningful positive impact on the creation of healthy and affordable neighborhoods in Grant County.

Crooked Forest Institute was established in 2022 with five educational priorities; Non-Toxic Living, Local Economy, Adobe Construction, Shared-Equity Land Ownership and Ecological Restoration. Their intention is to help to establish a local Community Land Trust (CLT) that is designed to provide safe, affordable housing in perpetuity for the benefit of the community. Once this CLT is established, Crooked Forest Institute intends to become a Community Housing Development Organization (CHDO) that builds multiple neighborhoods on the CLT for low-income residents who earn between 30% and 80% of the local average median income (AMI) which is about $15,000 to $40,000 annual income in Grant County.

Their pilot project is their “resiliency neighborhood,” which is designed to share the most affordable utilities infrastructure; that of an RV park. They want to build 10-site RV park infrastructure with water, septic/sewer, electrical and internet, and then build 400 square foot adobe homes–instead of RVs– at each site. This type of neighborhood is not currently permissible in Grant County under the current land use codes, but their hope is that it will be, once they request a “workforce housing” variance. This type of variance, allowing permanent structures to be built at RV park sites, has been passed in two other counties in New Mexico.

They contend that these small homes will be healthier, more affordable and much longer lived than the manufactured housing solutions that often wear out before the mortgage is paid off. If these ten-home neighborhoods are built on a Community Land Trust, the small homes will be buyable, sellable and inheritable and will offer a way for low income residents to accrue equity instead of paying high rents for substandard housing. Homes that are located on Community Land Trusts are deed-restricted, which means they can be bought at below market rate, but the buyer must agree to sell it to another low-income family in order for the neighborhood to stay affordable housing in perpetuity.

Community Land Trusts, a shared-equity model of land ownership, first gained popularity during the civil rights era, as vehicles for consumer protection and social justice among disenfranchised populations. They have proven to be a reliable foundation for perpetually affordable housing efforts in 225 cities and towns around the US. During the housing crisis following the 2008 financial meltdown, homes in Community Land Trusts were ten times less likely to end up in foreclosure.

Crooked Forest Institute focuses on the historical tradition of building with adobe bricks and compressed earth blocks because, says Holly Noonan, their Executive Director, “This is anti-inflammatory, probiotic housing.” Noonan, a social worker, became severely ill in New England due to multiple chemical sensitivity and discovered the long history of chemically sensitive people healing in adobe homes. “These small homes are what I needed myself 8 years ago.” Due to the indoor air quality issues in modern buildings that are made out of OSB, paint, adhesives and caulking, small adobe homes are ideal for about 25% of the population who are health-challenged by the ubiquity of modern chemicals.

Like Community Rebuilds, in Moab, Utah, Crooked Forest Institute intends to build houses on a CLT using a community-building model. This means their students and volunteers who contribute labor hours on each build get a free education while they are lowering labor costs for each homeowner.

The $200,000 grant will be dedicated to furthering Crooked Forest’s mission by securing the location of their 32-acre education campus, searching for matching grants, developing the messaging of their vision, articulating both landscape and architectural design plans, establishing a Community Land Trust and applying for the land use variance that will be needed to realize their vision.

They can be contacted at crookedforestinstitute@gmail.com.

https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-releases/85222-crooked-forest-institute-is-a-silver-city-based-501c3-non-profit