Buyers of Community land trust homes at Village Gardens will selected using the City of Seattle’s Community Preference guidelines. Community Preference recognizes that people with historic ties to particular neighborhoods may have been displaced by economic forces including gentrification, or that they may be at imminent risk of gentrification.
Applicants for homes must first meet basic qualifying criteria for our program include first-time homebuyer status and income qualifications. Assuming these are met, we will prioritize the applications of people with historic ties to or who currently live in specific census tracks that comprise the area known as the Central District. We use these census tracks based on the City’s research confirming these as locations where displacement is occurring and displacement of historic residents has already occurred. Homestead’s buyer selection policy and process already prioritizes applications of those who are at risk of displacement or have current ties to an area where one of our homes is located.
Who Qualities for Community Preference Criteria
Applicants who currently live in the census tracks listed below or whose family has historic ties to the area will receive community preference consideration in our buyer selection process.
What Census Tracks Qualify
To get Community Preference consideration, applicants should refer to Census Tracks 77, 79, 87, 88, 89 ,90, and 95 on the City's Map.
Determining Your Census Track
Current Residents of Neighborhood To determine if you are a current resident of one of the designated preference census tracks, you can look up your address using this online tool: Census Track Look Up
Historic Ties If you are establishing a historic tie of relative or an ancestor to the neighborhood, use the address on their household documentation from the time of residency in the same look-up system: Census Track Look Up
Required Documentation
Homestead’s application forms will request applicants clarify if they are requesting community preference based on their current residency in the census tracks or to establish that their family has historic ties to the neighborhood.
Forms of documentation that are acceptable under the City’s guidelines include:
Homestead may also require applicants to provide additional information to document family lineage or relationship.
What You Can Do Now
While we wait for the homes at Village Gardens to be completed, if you have not already done so, complete the pre-application to see if you meet the base criterial for buying a home through our program: Apply to Our Program
In most cases, the information requested by our application process will be sufficient to demonstrate if you currently live in the census tracks listed.
If you are applying on the basis of your family’s historic ties to the area, you can begin now to gather documentation using the guidelines above.
Bring your questions to the information sessions scheduled in December, January and February. Information Sessions
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