Community Land Trusts

Community Land Trusts (CLT’s)

What are Community Land Trusts?

“Community land trusts are nonprofit, community-based organizations designed to ensure community stewardship of land. Community land trusts can be used for many types of development, but are primarily used to ensure long-term housing affordability. To do so, the trust acquires land and maintains ownership of it permanently. With prospective homeowners, it enters into a long-term, renewable lease instead of a traditional sale. When the homeowner sells, the family earns only a portion of the increased property value. The remainder is kept by the trust, preserving the affordability for future low- to moderate-income families.”

community-wealth.org

“In the CLT model for affordable homeownership a nonprofit housing organization, formed for this purpose, purchases land with existing homes for rehabilitation and/or builds new homes on the land. The typical CLT Board may be comprised of community members, housing experts, funders as well as CLT homebuyers. The percentage of CLT homeowners on the board is usually limited to no more than one-third. Besides creating a homeownership and wealth building opportunity for families who otherwise could not qualify for mortgage financing, the Community Land Trust (CLT) model also creates sustainability and long-term affordability for communities by preserving the “one-time” infusion of capital from philanthropy and/or governmental sources needed to cover the gap in creating the affordability.”

Community Land Trust Basics: What they are, What they are not. Dennis Sturtevant, retired CEO for Dwelling Place of Grand Rapids, NPHC

How Does a Community Land Trust Create Affordable Homeownership Opportunities that last?

CLTs create affordable homeownership opportunities that last by 1)acquiring and holding land, 2) acquiring, developing or rehabilitating housing on that land (or partnering with others to do so), 3) selling the housing — but not the land — to low-income purchasers at a price they can afford, and 4) limiting the price appreciation of the property to ensure that every time the home is resold, it goes to another low-income purchaser at a price that purchaser can afford.

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

Resources on Community Land Trusts that can help bring more affordable homes for your community:

Community Land Trust Basics

Authored by Dennis Sturtevant, this guide explains What Community Land Trusts are and What they are not for community housing development.

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: AN INTRODUCTION WEBINAR - rECORDING

Hosted on January 13, 2022 this workshop offered a basic overview of Community Land Trusts as a tool for affordable and sustainable housing development from real experiences and experts in the region.

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A guide for local governments

In this report, Grounded Solutions Network provides an introduction to the community land trust model by shedding light on the key ways that municipal governments and local leaders can initiate or support CLTs in their communities.

Shared Equity and cooperatively-owned housing: a guide to navigating the models

This guide developed by Neighbor Works America is designed to serve as a starting point for organizations and community leaders who are considering a shared equity or cooperative housing approach as a possible tool to address community needs.

Land Banks and community land trusts:

A quick guide developed by the Center for Community Progress to demonstrate the differences between Land Banks and CLT’s and how they complement each other.

study: Tracking Growth and Evaluating Performance of Shared Equity Homeownership Programs

This study, published by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy looks at 58 shared equity homeownership programs and 4,108 properties over the past three decades exploring growth in the shared equity housing stock, the characteristics of households owning shared equity homes, and the performance of these programs across the nation.