The Rocky Mountain Community Land Trust (RMCLT) mission is to provide permanent, supportive housing for low-income families in El Paso County and the City of Colorado Springs. While our core mission is affordable homeownership, we also collaborate with other non-profit organizations to address housing needs across the community, such as transitional housing and affordable rentals. Owning a home has long been the American Dream. Despite this fact, the average working-class family will never be able to realize this dream due to their economic situation. You may know nurses, teachers, retail workers, janitors, etc., who work hard to provide for their families. These families have a difficult time saving for a large down payment, or are unable to afford a mortgage payment that is higher than their current rent. By making an investment in the properties with the families, we help make the American Dream of owning a home a reality. One way to look at the RMCLT program is that our investment, an average of twenty five percent of the purchase price, is equal to buying the land while the family’s mortgage is purchasing the house. Our investment significantly reduces the family’s monthly payment, and also removes the requirement for them to pay mortgage insurance. Over the past 19 years we have partnered with 295 families in the City of Colorado Springs and El Paso County; that’s 422 adults plus 266 children for a total of 688 people helped in our community! We focus on home-ownership because having a stable home is central to healthy families and a robust community. Studies show that children of homeowners are more likely to attend school after the age of 17, have higher test scores, and have fewer behavioral problems than children of non-homeowners. Adults in homeownership are less likely to have alcohol and substance abuse problems, retain jobs longer, and stay in one place longer than non-homeowners, creating stable neighborhoods and communities.