Community Land Trust

Lower East Side Organizers Look To Launch New Community Land Trusts

October 30, 2022 Katie Pruden, The Indypendent. Create! Community Land Trust, Housing, New York (NY), New York City (NYC)

New York City, New York - Tito Delgado, 71, has lived in the Lower East Side for almost all of his life. He has seen his neighbors and friends driven out of their neighborhood, and himself too, because of unaffordable housing prices. “There is a whole history of displacement here,” Delgado said, adding “I still live in the Lower East Side, but I sleep in Chelsea.” Some who have been forced to leave their homes like Delgado aren’t giving up on the neighborhood. Sixth Street Community Center, This Land is Ours and the Cooper Square Committee with the help of the community are developing a plan, starting in the Lower East Side, to create more accessible housing through community land trusts (CLTs).

Community Land Trusts As A Proactive Model For Post-Capitalist Development

June 21, 2022 Jon Hanzen, Resilience. Create! Community Land Trust, New Economy, Post-Capitalism, Sustainability

On paper, a Community Land Trust [C.L.T.] is a non-profit organization first, but not necessarily foremost. Indefinite land leases within inflated financial and real estate markets are most desirable for the procurement of actual wealth equity. C.L.T.’s are a proactive model for sustainability and break the vicious cycle of our archaic Colonial past. The sociological relevance of a C.L.T. is in developing a community orientation for living a life aligned with autonomous Degrowth and the promotion of New Local Post-Capitalism. New localism is therefore characterized by a cautious devolution of power to the local level in an attempt to better implement national goals. It emphasizes the devolution of managerial over political power — the aim is generally to allow local managers to meet national priorities more effectively, rather than to allow local politicians to derogate from national goals.

Cooperatives And Community Land Trusts: Natural Partners?

August 10, 2021 Jake Blumgart, ShelterForce. Create! Community Land Trust, Cooperatives, Housing, Public Housing

The first ever presidential visit to the South Bronx took America’s chief executive to a multi-unit cooperative, a radical break from the nation’s housing norms that became a symbol of hope during the depths of the urban crisis. In October 1977, Jimmy Carter’s cream-colored limousine rolled into the devastation of the South Bronx. Escorted by six motorcycles and three helicopters, the trip had been kept secret until the last possible moment. There were two stops on the tour. At one, Carter saw a ghost block where every building had been leveled, confirming the nightmarish popular image of this section of New York City. The other stop was something else entirely. The president was driven to a multistory apartment building at 1186 Washington Ave., where tenants had taken control after the landlord walked away.

Housing Activists Claim Victory In Fight For Community Land Trust

September 27, 2020 Philadelphia Housing Action. Resist! Community Land Trust, Houseless, Philadelphia, Tent Encampment

On Friday, September 25, Philadelphia Housing Action and the City of Philadelphia reached a tentative agreement to resolve a months long standoff over the fate of two homeless protest encampments and 15 vacant city-owned homes occupied by mothers and children. The unprecedented agreement to give homeless activists 50 vacant, viable homes comes after many months of housing takeovers, protest encampments, eviction defense of the houses, barricaded and blockaded streets and mass mobilizations to defend the encampments.

Community Land Trust Builds Social Housing

August 7, 2020 Brittany Ebeling, GEO Coop. Create! Affordable Housing, Community Land Trust, European Union (EU), New Economy

European communities are adapting the U.S. model of the community land trust to mitigate the housing affordability crisis. While trusts in the U.S. stemmed from the civil rights movement with the goal of securing access to land for Black farmers in the South, European countries have applied the movement’s logic to rural and urban challenges and its spread has been broadly from the affluent northwest to the east. Brussels, Belgium, known as the ‘capital of Europe,’ is one of many cities worldwide that are facing mounting pressure on their accessibly-priced housing stock.

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