Let's look at

AN UNEQUAL HISTORY

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While the costs of building and maintaining homes remains stable year to year, the "value" of the land can fluctuate wildly due to financial crises and bubbles, deregulation, gentrification and more.

Time and again, people and communities with less financial and political power bear the brunt of loss in times of fluctuation while interests with more money and connections reap the benefits.

Moderate- and low-income homeowners are at greater risk of foreclosure, while renters face spiking rents and evictions because landlords can easily overcharge for properties when a severe shortage of affordable housing means that demand far outpaces supply. 

This leads to disinvestment in lower-income communities and communities of color, as well as displacement of the people living in them.

CLT's harness the power of rarely-heard and often-disenfranchised people, partner with groups fighting for greater equity, compete for property and buildings that would normally go to the highest bidder, and obtain land for the permanent use of and direction by historically discriminated communities.

The goal is equity: leveling the playing field in housing and development so that people have more access to stable housing, more ownership of their neighborhoods, and more opportunity to build financial and community capital, paving the way for the neighbors who will come after them.

Source: Legislative Analyst's Office

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Want to know more about Land Trusts?

Metro area ​
​lending disparities,
listed by race

Compare your neighborhood with others to see who is getting loans and who has to look elsewhere. 

​You can also text "LOAN" to 202-873-8325.
(Standard text rates apply.)

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Read "Kept Out"
by the Center for Investigative Reporting

Read about how in 61 metro areas across the U.S., people of color were more likely to be denied conventional mortgage loans than whites, even when controlling for applicants' income, loan amount and neighborhood.

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Let's work together for Housing Equity
​and have our say in community development

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Modern-day Segregation is Subtle, Legal...
and Profitable
.   .   .   .   . 

Housing discrimination still thrives in America, in no small part due to inequitable mortgage lending.  Unchecked biases and technical structural barriers prevent ALL peoples having equal access to the business and government levers of financial power.