International Center for Community Land Trusts
We are a not-for-profit nongovernmental organization established in 2018 to promote and to support community land trusts and similar strategies of community-led development on community-owned land in countries throughout the world.
Photo of Grupo Esperança community and the Favela-CLT Project (Catalytic Communities, Brazil)
Just Released!
The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy has released a new Policy Focus Report, Preserving Affordable Homeownership: Municipal Partnerships with Community Land Trusts, by John Emmeus Davis and Kristin King-Ries of the International Center for Community Land Trusts.
Drawing on insights from 115 community land trusts (CLTs) that were interviewed or surveyed by the International Center for Community Land Trusts, the report explores how CLTs are partnering with public officials to help address the housing affordability crisis. In this innovative model, individuals buy homes on land that is leased from a local CLT and agree to limit the resale price, reducing the upfront cost of homeownership and keeping those homes affordable for one income-qualified household after another.
Preserving Affordable Homeownership builds on the Lincoln Institute’s 2008 Policy Focus Report The City-CLT Partnership, coauthored by Davis and Rick Jacobus. In addition, a multimedia case study published by the Lincoln Institute in 2023, Still the One: Affordable Housing Initiatives in Burlington Vermont’s Old North End, features Davis and several colleagues from the Champlain Housing Trust, the largest CLT in the United States.
Upcoming Events
“Stewarding the Future: Youth Power and Leadership in Community Land Trust Practices”
December 4, 2024, noon Eastern US, 6 PM CEST
Core to the CLT mission is the stewardship of community assets for both present and future generations. Responding to today’s pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges—particularly those posed by climate change—requires listening to, and raising up, the voices of those who will be most affected: our youth. Engaging young people in community-owned land and housing will be crucial for building sustainable communities and advancing the stewardship mission of CLTs.
Panelists: Ashley Allen, Houston CLT; Carlos Sanchez-Gonzales, South Baltimore CLT; Jason Webb, Grounded Solutions Network
Together, we will explore questions such as:
- How are CLTs involving youth representatives in decision-making?
- How are the concerns of youth members of CLTs shaping CLT practice?
- How can we better engage youth and highlight their role in shaping the future of communities?
CLTs in the News
- Midwest Community Land Trust Conference Recap, Detroit Justice Center, October 17, 2024
- Africatown Community Land Trust Celebrates the Opening of Africatown Plaza, a New Affordable Housing Building, Lauryn Bray, South Seattle Emerald, October 8, 2024
- Kīpuka Kuleana: restoring relationships to place and strengthening climate adaptation through a community-based land trust, Sarah Barger et al, Frontiers in Sustainability, September 24, 2024
- A Seattle home for under $300,000? Yes, but with some strings attached, Jessica Fu, The Seattle Times, September 22, 2024
- A plot of land in Southern California could be a game-changer for the housing crisis: Factory-built housing, ADUs, and community land trusts — all at once. Rachel Cohen, Vox, September 12, 2024
- Sacramento Community Land Trust acquires its first property, Kate Wolffe, CapRadio, August 19, 2024
- The Black History of the Community Land Trust Model, Rondo Community Land Trust, April 29, 2024
