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2O2 4 – 2O2 5 GU I D E to Y E L LOW S P R I NG S 17 MacQueen said villagers couldn’t agree on whether the Village-owned Glass Farm land should be donated to a hous- ing project or be sold. “There was this period of back-and-forth divisiveness on Council, partly as a result of opposing or supporting afford - able housing,” MacQueen added. Ultimately, the proposed Glass Farm project didn’t move ahead — nor did a follow-up proposal to site affordable homes on another portion of Glass Farm several years later. The second effort, MacQueen said, was even more con- tentious than the first. But MacQueen — and Home, Inc. — persisted. “It was such an awakening to me to see, frankly, prejudice against affordable housing, in my opinion,” she said. “That was what motivated me to then decide to stick with Home, Inc. and become the director [in 2002].” Despite, and amid, com- munity discord over the second Glass Farm proposal, Home, Inc. purchased its first property: a two-room home on North High Street which had previously been owned by longtime resident Ross Endsley, who lived there for 60 years. Local architect Patty Rice volunteered her services to design the rehabbed home — a design that saved a portion of the original building to serve as the new home’s foyer, while adding new spaces. Local contractor Chris Glaser gave his time to oversee groups of volunteers — including Mac- Queen — who worked over a period of months to construct Rice’s design. “I was intimately acquainted with that house — I went all through it and crawled under- neath it,” MacQueen said. In 2001, Home, Inc. sold the North High Street house as its first affordable home via the community land trust, or CLT, model. Home, Inc.’s model follows that of the first CLT estab - lished in the U.S. by land trust pioneer Bob Swann and civil rights activist Slater King, who, in 1969, helped form the 5,600-acre New Communi- ties, Inc. CLT — the largest tract of Black-owned land in the nation at the time — in Georgia. New Communities aimed to preserve its land as community-owned, in order to enable southern Black families to affordably build homes and farms in an area where they were otherwise denied such access. Home, Inc.’s CLT enables residents to purchase homes on land owned and stewarded by Home, Inc., in an effort to keep the properties affordable in perpetuity. Using the CLT model, the nonprofit has built or rehabbed 40 homes and apart- ments for residents of low to moderate income over 25 years. And that original North High Street home is now on its fourth owners — with one of those owners being this reporter. “I’m not a betting person, but I’d bet there’s no other community in the country that’s as small as Yellow Springs that has this kind of organization,” MacQueen said. “Truly, the organization shouldn’t exist — what’s that they say, that bees shouldn’t be able to fly?” MacQueen referred to an oft-cited anecdote: that bees’ bodies seem too large for their wings, but they fly anyway. And Home, Inc. flies — and will continue to fly, MacQueen said — as long as there are folks in the community willing to support its work. “On the one hand, there has been this opposition in Yellow Springs to affordable housing consistently — there still is, though much less,” MacQueen said. “On the other hand, there has been an amazing amount IMPORTANT PHONE NUMBERS Police Emergency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 911 Police Non-Emergency & Utility Emergency . .937-767-7206 General Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 937-767-3402 ext . 0 Clerk of Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .937-767-9126 Utility Billing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 937-767-7202 ext . 221 Public Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .937-767-8649 Water & Wastewater Facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . .937-767-7208 Parks & Recreation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .937-767-7209 Gaunt Park Pool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .937-767-9172 Mayor’s Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .937-767-3400 Village Mediation Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .937-605-8754 Public Access TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .937-767-7803 Village Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .937-767-1279 Economic Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .937-767-1702 Zoning & Code Enforcement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .937-767-1702 Bryan Center Room Scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . .937-767-7209 TO REGISTER TO VOTE, CALL Greene County Board of Elections, 937-562-7470 WE URGE YOU TO VOTE The Village of YELLOW SPRINGS WelcomesYou POPULATION: 3,610