This presentation is part of our continued learning together, about the housing crisis in Dane County and different approaches to meeting those needs, sparked by our Good Futures Accelerator work in 2025; read about it here!
On July 22, 2026, Mason Cavell of the Madison Area Community Land Trust (MACLT) visited us and shared about MACLT’s work with a group of seven St. Dunstan’s folk. We also recorded our conversation and it is available to watch on our Vimeo channel.
MACLT is a private nonprofit with a community board; at least 1/3 of the members of the board live in their homes. MACLT holds land, in perpetuity, so that they can manage the prices of the homes built on that land (the land being leased to the homeowner). They work with developers to build homes/condos that are then sold (not rented) to people whose income is 80% or below of area median income. Particular developments or units within a development can be targeted to lower brackets as well, such as 50% or below; they’re also open to being partners on a development that is partly market rate and partly income restricted. Overall, this means they’re serving people who would otherwise only be able to rent, in Madison’s housing market. They currently have 70 homes in their portfolio but their model is gaining attention and they have several projects in the works. Last year, Dane County created just 37 new affordable home ownership units, so there is a big unmet need for affordable homes to buy (not rent).
MACLT can buy, renovate, and sell existing homes; work with a developer as a partner; or be the developer. They’ve served in all three roles. They have also worked with Threshold Development, the company that Mark Elsdon (of Rooted Good/Good Futures) works with.
MACLT’s approach is designed to keep housing affordable for the long term. People who buy their homes sign a covenant to limit the growth in value of the home, so that when it next comes up for sale, it will still be an affordable property, despite the strong upward pressure on property values in Dane County. This does limit how much money people can make from the increase in value of their home, but the value does increase somewhat, and as an alternative to renting, they are still paying down a mortgage and building financial stability in that way, instead of just paying a landlord and never seeing those dollars again.
They build small, simple, but well-built homes, trying to get back to the midcentury approach (in 1960, the average American home had 300 sq feet per person; now it’s almost 1000). They provide homebuyer education and help with maintaining the homes, to keep up their value and keep them in good repair.
The average tenure of people in their homes is 14 years. The stability and predictability of mortgage payments (as opposed to rent that’s raised again and again) means that some folks are able to move into standard housing; they also work with many seniors, who eventually move out into supportive housing.
So far the MACLT has mostly worked with publicly-owned land, so working with church-owned land would be a new endeavor (though there are examples out there). The cost of buying land can make affordable housing impossible, so donated or steeply discounted land would be best in this model. A mixed development with some market rate housing and some MACLT income-restricted housing might be a possibility as well, in terms of making the financial side work out. In one of their current projects, they’re putting 12 townhomes on 1 acre (with some open space between them!).
A fun fact for people at St. Dunstan’s: Art and Sue Lloyd donated their apartment at the Village Co-housing Community to the MACLT so that it could become an affordable unit in perpetuity.
Mason’s recommendation for us is to continue our own internal discussion and discernment about what we hope for. Who do we want to house? What do we hope it will look like? What relationship do we hope for, between residents and the church? He and his team would be glad to be a resource and sounding board, and would be happy to work with us if we decide we want to move in this direction. An early step would be a site assessment/analysis, to begin to envision what could be possible here on this property.