Housing for Main Street and the rest of us

Madison Area Community Land Trust

MACLT is a 20 year old affordable housing non-profit located in Madison, WI. Our goal is to create permanently affordable housing for generations of homebuyers.

The Land Trust sells the home but rents the land to income-qualified homebuyers. MACLT homebuyers are insulated from the principal and interest payments they would otherwise be liable for, and they earn property tax advantages. Over the course of a 30-year mortgage, MACLT homeowners will save over $100,000 on their household payments.

Our organization strongly commits to innovation, sustainable, energy-efficient, durable, accessible housing. We currently boast 67 homes in the trust, and we're looking to expand opportunities for permanently affordable homeownership wherever we can.

In exchange for the 'good deal' they receive by owning a Land Trust home, MACLT homeowners agree to pay a monthly small land rent, and they agree to sell the home for no more than 25% of what they bought it for. This resale mechanic ensures the permanent affordability of the homes in the Trust.

MACLT has suffered through a difficult history. I'm the one-year-new director; I love this program and the people it serves; and I want to give it a fresh look and image that carries it through the next stage of its life.

MACLT homebuyers all earn 80% or less than the prevalent ''County Median" income, as adjusted for household size. They are attracted to the affordability of our homes, and they are willing to trade the speculative commodity value they'd find in the open market, for homes that will remain affordable for generations to come. We pride ourselves on the innovation of our construction practice, and we build with generations of home-owners in mind -- this commitment to long-range thinking yields green, energy-efficient, durable homes that appeal to conscientious homebuyers in the progressive Dane County housing market.

We're looking to expand the Land Trust model, into a Housing Trust model, for which we would be searching for institutional investors willing to catalyze the program.

We're always looking for volunteers interested in helping to further the cause of permanent affordability.

The logo needs to express our long-term commitment to our community of homeowners, even as it celebrates our commitment to the environment and generationally-sound building practice.

The logo will be used on letterhead, business cards, etc., and should be flexible and adaptable for different formats.

As the agency's director, I have a personal commitment to creating lasting works of beauty in the houses I build -- I'm not sure how to convey that through a logo, but the notion of beauty as its own goal and as a step towards economic justice motivates damn near everything I do.

All our current marketing materials are bland, outdated, and inconsistent. Truthfully, we've never had a real logo before, and it'd be great if the logo you design has an complementary font style in mind.

Our name -- Madison Area Community Land Trust -- is too wordy, and is difficult to compress aesthetically into letterhead, business cards, etc. Something that captures the essence of our program without all those damn syllables would be great.

I'd need something that I can use both for our website and Facebook page, as well as a logo that will print well for letterhead.

I'd like to convey an element of radicalism, too: Community Land Trusts are the antidote to Wall St., so far as real estate speculation is concerned. I want folks to understand that these are properties owned IN the community, BY the community.