International Center for Community Land Trusts -

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!

Book cover for Preserving Affordable Homeownership

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.

Read the Press Release

CLTs in the News

6 standout housing policy ideas from 2024, Rachel Cohen, Vox, December 27, 2024
Can churches help solve the housing crisis? One Raleigh church thinks so, Kevin Campbell, The Carolina Journal, December 24, 2024
Banks won’t solve the housing crisis, but community bonds just might, Tova Gaster, Corporate Knights, December 20, 2024
Community Land Trusts Can Build Resilient, Affordable Housing, Advocates Say. Ottawa Voted Them Down. Tova Gaster, The Energy Mix, December 16, 2024
Land Trust nonprofit prepares for its first contract negotiations after its management agrees to union request, Helen Fallon, Pittsburgh Union Progress, December 8, 2024
Rhode Island Spotlight: Southside Community Land Trust, The Providence Journal, December 5, 2024 (VIDEO)
Over a year after Lahaina fires, Native Hawaiian homeowners hit another breaking point, Jessica Machado, NBC News, November 30, 2024
Flanders’ first Community Land Trust housing project starts in Ghent, Collin Clapson, VRT News, November 27, 2024
Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg donate $626,000 to support permanently affordable housing on Kaua’i, Maui Now, November 25, 2024
Voluntary Service award for New Ferry Community Land Trust, Craig Manning, Wirral Globe, November 14, 2024
Derelict house to be renovated as affordable home, BBC, November 5, 2024
Rebuilding hundreds of affordable housing units burned in Lahaina fire is key priority of county’s recovery plan, Colleen Uechi, Maui Now, October 27, 2024

Terra Nostra Press

Terra Nostra Press publishes books, monographs, and manuals in support of the CLT Center’s work. These publications showcase the theory and practice of community land trusts, along with the stories of reflective practitioners from around the world who are laying the foundation for an international CLT movement.

CLT Map + Directory

We curate the definitive global map and directory of community land trusts.

Resource Library

We have the most extensive collection of materials about community land trusts in the world. You can find how-to guides, academic papers, case studies, interviews with leading practitioners, as well as information about the history of the global CLT movement.

What Is a CLT?

This page will help you get started on your journey of learning about community land trusts.