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Nineteen people stand in a semi-circle facing the camera, on a partly paved road near some mobile homes and parked cars. They are mixed in age, gender, and skin color, and most have one arm raised high, making a fist; one person is raising both arms with thumbs up, and one person has not raised her arms.
Community Land Trusts

Let’s Harness the Growth of the Shared-Equity Field

Between 2011 and 2022, the number of nonprofits with shared-equity programs and CLTs increased by 30 percent. Here’s a look at the diversity of their programs and portfolios, and who’s benefiting from their rise.

Q: What Are the Three Major Types of Community- or Resident-Controlled Housing and How Do they Work? Brief descriptions of cooperative, community land trust, and mutual housing association with clip art illustrations. Image links to PDF version.
Affordability

Q: What Are the Three Major Types of Community- or Resident-Controlled Housing and How Do They Work?

There’s a lot of momentum toward resident-controlled housing. Do you know the three major forms it takes?

A view of a city from a grassy hillside. Just beyond the hill is a large settlement of one- and two-story houses, mostly visible by their roofs. Beyond them rises a steep, evergreen-dotted, and rocky mountain. The sky far beyond is white, except for a bit of blue at the right. No people are visible in this photo.
Housing

Western States Look to These Lands for New Affordable Housing

In several western states, state-owned trust lands were created to support schools and other community benefits.

A row of New York Police Dept. cars lined up, half on the sidewalk, half in the gutter. At least 7 cars can be counted. Cars are white with blue lettering. At left, a woman is walking in the road past the cars.
Community Land Trusts

New Yorkers Need Land. The NYPD Is Sitting On Nearly 150 Lots.

A new map reveals how much land in New York City is being wasted by city police—often sitting vacant, rather than serving the public good.

A park bench by a cracked sidewalk. There's graffiti on the bench seat, and the back is printed with "Baltimore/The Greatest City in America." Behind the bench is a brick wall with a gray metal vent at the left.
Community Development Field

The Dirty Little Secret—Rising Property Values Are Incompatible with Affordability

Rising property values come with positive community development, but this shift can make neighborhoods inaccessible to low-income renters and fixed-income homeowners.

View from the end of the driveway of a new-looking white two-story house with a two-car garage, front porch with an overhang, and a gabled roof. The front yard is still all muddy soil with tire tracks.
Policy

When a Land Bank Starts a Land Trust

An Ohio land bank adds to its developing power through a nonprofit land trust.

A sidewalk view of a front stoop where a man stands holding a bullhorn. Lined up on the sidewalk in front of him is a large group of people, many wearing CLVU's bright yellow-green T-shirts.
Community Control

Boston Organizers Protect Individual Tenants, While Trying to Change the System

City Life/Vida Urbana is known for successful tenant union organizing and anti-eviction actions, but every individual action springs from a larger vision of system and policy change.

A ribbon-cutting for two newly renovated rowhomes on Westmont Street in North Philadelphia. Pictured is a family cutting a ribbon. They are surrounding by lots of people in masks.
Community Control

New Philly Land Trust Was Promised Dozens of Homes; How’s It Going?

Two years ago, Philadelphia officials agreed to give 59 vacant buildings to homeless advocates. The historic deal has faced several setbacks, but is still moving forward.

Community Control

How to Retrofit the Housing Economy

Are policy changes enough to address the housing problems we face?

An illustration of homes on a conveyor belt going through a machine and coming out as golden homes. Green dollar bills are coming out of the homes. This illustrates the financialization of housing.
Community Control

The Financialization of Housing and Its Implications for Community Development

Over the last two decades homeowners and investors have increasingly treated housing as a financial asset, like stocks or bonds. How has this changed the housing market for the worse, and how can we fix it?

A large affordable housing development with a large mural that includes Black musicians on the front wall.
Community Control

Two Paths to Density: Profit vs People

As communities across the country begin promoting density to address the affordable housing crisis, they must grapple with how that housing will be built, and for whom.

Community Control

Affordable ADUs: How It’s Being Done

In the face of limited financing options, local governments, nonprofits, and social enterprises are experimenting with ways to make affordable ADUs a reality.