Big River Community Land Trust, a young not-for-profit organization working to address affordable housing needs in the Gorge, is delighted to announce the appointment of Alysha Sherburne as its inaugural Executive Director. Alysha has most recently held the concurrent positions of Community Engagement Manager and Housing Counselor for OPAL Community Land Trust on Orcas Island, WA. She held a number of other positions prior to her work at OPAL including real estate broker, special projects manager for the Orcas Island Chamber of Commerce, office manager, facilities manager, and bookkeeper.
While at OPAL she worked closely with home buyers and renters who were challenged by the high prices of housing on Orcas Island. She won strong praise from her stakeholders for her compassion as well as her depth of knowledge. Alysha was also integral to OPAL’s fundraising efforts to increase the number of affordable houses for purchase and apartments for rent. In addition, during the last year Alysha co-led a complete revision of OPAL’s homeownership policies driven by feedback from clients and the community. Her strong background with both homeowners and donors positions her well to address the opportunities in front of Big River CLT.
Alysha Sherburne, the new Executive Director of Big River CLT said, “I am very excited to build a community land trust program here in the Gorge”. She further added “Working for OPAL I was able to really see the impact that this model can have over multiple generations. I look forward to using the knowledge and experience I gained with them to not just build affordable housing, but to keep the communities of the Gorge cohesive and thriving”.
Alysha holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from Ashford University and, prior to that, spent three years studying Anthropology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand where she previously resided. She is an avid outdoor enthusiast and notes that the Gorge is a perfect location for her and her husband.
Doug Baker, Big River CLT Board President, said “Alysha is the ideal person to take on this inaugural Executive Director role. She has a great depth of knowledge, skill, and empathy around affordable housing issues. This is a critical problem in the Gorge as the local working class has been priced out of the opportunity to buy a home.” Baker added that “without adequate housing for our teachers, health care professionals, service workers, farm workers, etc. our communities will erode. We are already seeing evidence of this in our schools as enrollments are dropping because families cannot afford to live here.”
Big River Community Land Trust’s mission is to develop and steward a stable supply of permanently affordable, sustainably built homes for sale which preserve the dynamic character and diversity of our central Gorge communities. Big River CLT serves low to middle income earners (80-120% of Median Family Income) in Hood River and Klickitat counties by funding housing development through grants, donations and private impact investments, and innovative land acquisitions and construction models.
The CLT model builds permanently affordable housing by procuring land and owning it in perpetuity, and then building homes on that land which are sold to buyers who own the house, but not the land. That model allows the CLT to sell the home at an affordable price as well as restrict the resale price of the home to 1.5% increase per year so that the home will be affordable to the next buyer. This model allows buyers to purchase a home at a significantly reduced price while still building equity.