Community Land Trusts
What is a community land trust?
A community land trust (CLT) is a private, non-profit organization created to acquire and hold land for the benefit of a community and provide secure affordable access to land and housing for community residents. In particular, CLTs attempt to meet the needs of residents not served by the prevailing market. CLTs prohibit speculation and absentee ownership of land and housing, promote ecologically sound land-use practices, and preserve the long-term affordability of housing.
What makes a CLT distinctive?
Accountability and Commitment to Local Control. CLTs provide greater local control over land and housing ownership. Homestead is a membership organization with members drawn from our homeowners and the broader community. Our members elect a Board of Delegates that include Homestead homeowners, nonresident members, and others who represent the community.
Dual Ownership. Homestead protects the community's long-term interests by separating the ownership of land from the ownership of the home. Homeowners own their homes and other improvements, and lease the land beneath their homes from Homestead. Terms of the arrangement between Homestead and our homeowners are defined in a 99-year ground lease. Homestead offers our homeowners security, an opportunity to transfer the lease to their heirs, and full rights of privacy.
Protecting the Permanent Affordability of Housing, Homestead protects affordability for future residents by controlling the resale price of homes within the trust. Our ground lease includes a formula for calculating a price that offers homeowners predictable and fair compensation for their investment. In this way, Homestead preserves the community's investment of public and private resources and makes each home in our trust permanently affordable.
How are CLTs different from conservation land trusts?
They are similar in many ways. Both CLTs and conservation land trusts control land use for the benefit of people in the future as well as the present, but they tend to be concerned with different types and uses of land. Conservation trusts are primarily focused on controlling rights to undeveloped land in order to preserve open space, ecologically fragile or unique environments, wilderness, or productive forest or agricultural land. CLTs such as Homestead, on the other hand, are primarily concerned with acquiring land for specific community uses -- particularly residential use. These concerns are not mutually exclusive, and some land trusts combine these purposes, preserving some land in a natural state while leasing other land for development. All land trusts have an ethic of land stewardship; they try to see that land is not developed or used inappropriately.
How do CLTs help homeowners?
CLTs provide ongoing affordable homeownership opportunities, a sense of security, legacy, and equity. Homestead uses a variety of subsidies to make homeownership affordable for people who are locked out of the market. We keep housing affordable for future generations by controlling the price owners receive when they sell their homes. Homestead partners with its homeowners to support their long-term success, providing resources, information, advocacy, and resale assistance as needed. Homestead homeowners build secure, predictable equity in their home over time, strengthening families across generations.
Are CLTs supported by local governments?
Yes. Much of Homestead’s subsidy funds come from the city, county, and state.
