Using Land to Restore Neighborhoods and Build Community

Community land trusts (CLTs) offer a form of community-controlled land ownership that can help stabilize the market in neighborhoods hard-hit by foreclosure or preserve affordable housing opportunities in places where the market is heating up. A recent paper by the National Housing Conference gives an overview of community land trusts and their proliferation in the past few decades. The paper explores the uses of CLTs – typically housing, but also commercial space, open space and even community agriculture – and discusses the benefits of establishing them, such as the stability and flexibility they can offer.

The authors also present issues that can potentially limit the usefulness of CLTs, including the high cost of land acquisition, and pose some possible solutions. The paper then provides four examples that show how CLTs have worked in different communities, offering both urban and rural contexts and high-priced real estate markets: Champlain Housing Trust in Burlington, Vermont, City of Lakes Community Land Trust in Minneapolis, T.R.U.S.T. South LA, and Oakland Community Land Trust.

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