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)
A Community Land Trust Digest
Edited by Kristin King-Ries, Eliza Platts-Mills, and John Emmeus Davis
A joint publication of the American Bar Association and the International Center for Community Land Trusts
Over the past 50 years, the number of community land trusts (CLTs) in the United States has grown from a handful in the 1970s to more than 350 today. Lawyers have been essential to this growth. They have assisted with the incorporation of new CLTs. They have fine-tuned ground leases and other model documents to fit local priorities. They have negotiated with private lenders and public funders, helping to secure essential funding and equitable taxation for the affordable housing being developed and stewarded by CLTs.
Lawyers have also been leading contributors to the CLT literature. They have been joined by a diverse array of planners, architects, community organizers, and housing practitioners, writing from the perspective of their own professions. These seminal essays on the history, theory, and practice of this unconventional form of tenure have been instrumental in refining and legitimating the CLT as an effective alternative to more familiar forms of housing provided by the market or the state.
A selection of these previously published articles, appearing in print between 1982 and 2023, are collected here for the first time in a single volume. This digest brings together legal and social perspectives on the CLT model, tracing its roots in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement through its modern applications. It features contributions from an outstanding editorial board of scholars and practitioners from institutions including Columbia, Yale, Notre Dame, UT Austin, UC Irvine, Vermont Law, NYU, Boston College, the University of Puerto Rico, and more. The articles in the book are aimed both at readers being introduced to CLTs for the first time and readers with significant CLT experience looking to answer deeper questions.
As CLTs continue to spread across the country, lawyers are increasingly called upon to assist in their formation and operation. This ebook will be an important resource for practicing attorneys and for faculty in schools of law, planning, social work, and public policy who are introducing students to the CLT in undergraduate or graduate courses.
This ebook can be purchased at the ABA’s website, and if you use our discount code “ICCLT30”, you will receive 30% off the retail price.
CLTs in the News
- How CLTs are powering co-op growth in Canada: lessons for the U.S.?, Steve Dubb, Shelterforce, April 27, 2026
- West Broadway residents aim to take housing off the market, keep it affordable with new ownership structure, Ian Froese, CBC Canada, April 17, 2026 (VIDEO)
- ‘Reverse-gentrify the country’: how Black and Indigenous intentional communities are reclaiming land, Melissa Hellman, The Guardian, April 12, 2026
- Nā Hale O Maui breaks ground on seven affordable homes in Kahului, Brian Perry, Maui Now, April 4, 2026
- Mobile home residents band together to keep trailer parks affordable, Natalie Skowlund, National Public Radio, April 3, 2026 (AUDIO)
- A community takes housing into its own hands in Upper Hammonds Plains, Josh Healey, The Chronicle Herald, March 30, 2026
- Group launches new space to support creative businesses in St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood, Nina Moini and Ngoc Bui, Minnesota Now, March 25, 2026 (AUDIO)
- Esperanza’s land trust transforms decrepit North Philly homes into gleaming low-cost rentals, Meir Rinde, Billy Penn at WHYY, March 23, 2026
- Rondo CLT buys former Sears on Rice Street, St Paul, Zach White, Hoodline Minneapolis, March 20, 2026
- Cohousing promises lower costs. Why hasn’t it worked in the US?, Steve Dubb, Shelterforce, March 20, 2026
- Aspen wants to try new way to preserve local businesses, Lucy Peterson, Aspen Daily News, March 18, 2026
Joint Publications with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy has released a new Policy Focus Report, in both English and Spanish, entitled 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.
International Commentaries on Preserving Affordable Homeownership is a collection of six global commentaries reflects on the Preserving Affordable Homeownership Policy Focus Report published by the Lincoln Institute in partnership with the International Center for Community Land Trusts. Featuring perspectives from Australia, Canada, Brazil, Europe, France, and the United Kingdom, the commentaries describe experiences and evolving projects from each area and share insights on what those experiences and projects have in common with—and how they differ from—community land trusts (CLTs) in the United States. The collection reflects a growing international movement committed to reimagining ownership, affordability, and community resilience worldwide.
