What is a Community Land Trust?

Click here for a deeper dive into how CLT's work in the US

A community land trust (CLT) is a nonprofit organization stewarding land for the permanent benefit of low income communities.

This land is community-controlled, its use directed by residents and neighbors.

Possible uses include: affordable homes for purchase, price-stable rental and cooperative housing, community-benefitting commercial space, childcare and eldercare, urban agriculture, public greenspace and more.

However, the heart of their work is the creation of homes that remain permanently affordable, providing successful homeownership opportunities for generations of lower income families.

What is Permanently Affordable Homeownership?

Permanently affordable homeownership programs invest public funding into a property in order to make home purchase affordable for a family of modest means.

​The organization supports the residents to attain and sustain homeownership. In return, the homeowner agrees to sell the home at resale-restricted and affordable price to another lower-income homebuyer in the future. Consequently, the homeowner is able to successfully own a home and build wealth from the investment, while the organization is able to preserve the public’s investment in the affordable home permanently to help family after family.

Along with CLTs, some Community Development Corporations (CDCs), Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), Habitat for Humanity affiliates, and government-based inclusionary zoning programs have permanently affordable homeownership programs.

More Land Trust Explainers

Stable and Equitable Housing with Accountability

• SacCLT will provide low- and moderate-income people with the opportunity to build equity through homeownership or rent with peace of mind, free of the fear of being displaced due to land speculation and gentrification.​
• SacCLT housing also protects owners from economic downturns  because people are not over-extended; as a result, foreclosure rates for land trusts have been as much as 90 percent less than conventional home mortgages.
• SacCLT is communally-governed. ​ The board is composed equally of residents in CLT housing, community members representing historically discriminated groups, and active community members, leading to direct, grassroots participation in decision-making and community control of local assets.

Click above to see more of the mechanics of SacCLT

Visit Our Partner CLT's and CLT Networks

Oakland Community Land Trust
Northern California Land Trust
Comm. Land Trust Assoc. of West Marin
California Community Land Trust Network
National Community Land Trust Network

News of CLT's at Work

Land, Co-ops, Compost – A local food economy emerges in Boston’s Poorest Neighborhoods – by Penn Loh – 11/7/14
Land Trust offers houses that people with lower incomes can afford – and a stepping stone to lasting wealth – by Penn Loh – 9/17/15
How One Boston Neighborhood Stopped Gentrification in its tracks – by Penn Loh – 1/28/15
Affordable Housing, Always – by Alana Semuels – The Atlantic – 7/6/15