Community Land Trusts
A community land trust is a nonprofit, community-based organization that is designed to ensure community stewardship of land. It’s a form of permanently affordable housing in which a community-controlled organization retains ownership of the land and sells or rents the housing on that land to lower-income households.
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How State Coalitions Are Advancing Community Ownership of Housing
In recent years, housing coalitions promoting community land trusts and real estate cooperatives have formed in multiple cities and states—and they are achieving results. Nonetheless, a lot of work is needed to achieve the policy changes these groups desire.
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First a Park, Then a Citywide Land Trust in D.C.
Douglass Community Land Trust began with a desire to prevent a new park from displacing neighborhood residents—but it soon got much bigger.
Scaling Up: How Some Community Land Trusts Are Getting Bigger
The community land trust model is in a time of dramatic growth and creativity. Some CLTs are aiming for larger scale than has been typical. How are they doing it?
Interboro CLT: A Committed Pipeline from Powerhouse Community Development Groups
Four New York-based organizations work together to place every homeownership unit they develop into a community land trust.
Atlanta Land Trust—From Central Server to a Centralized CLT
If at first you don’t succeed, partner with a land bank.
Understanding Community Land Trusts
What are CLTs? How do they work? What are the benefits and areas of concern? An overview.
Housing Solutions—Centering Community in Ownership, Control, and Long-Term Affordability
How is community control of housing realized? We explore different community ownership structures, how tenants form a cooperative, and how larger housing nonprofits can incorporate residents into decision-making.
How Community Ownership Is Evolving
The latest Shelterforce series takes a closer look at community land trusts and cooperatives to see how both are evolving.
CLTs Still Going Commercial—Nonprofit Offices, Hairdressers, and a Sausage Factory
Community land trusts, better known for permanently affordable housing, expand into commercial spaces for a wide range of reasons, and in a wide range of ways.
A Bolder Future for Housing Justice: ‘These Times Call for Radical Actions’
Housing advocates working at the local, state, and national levels discuss new research and policy recommendations for advancing housing justice.
Activists Win Control of Vacant Philadelphia Buildings: Now What?
The city and the activists involved have referred to the organization that will receive the properties as a community land trust, but as of late October it was not yet clear how the group will be structured.
Perspectives on the Community Land Trust
An interview with John Emmeus Davis, Line Algoed, and María E. Hernández-Torrales, editors of On Common Ground: International Perspectives on the Community Land Trust.
Lessons from the Last Housing Crisis: How to Get Control of Properties
How to keep affordable apartments and single-family homes out of the hands of institutional investors if the coronavirus pandemic leads to a giant wave of evictions and foreclosures.