Reasons for Organizing a Community Land Trust

Why Create (or Support) a CLT?

1. Stewardship: Preserving Scarce Resources
a. Preserving affordability one generation after another.

b. Preserving public subsidies, lands, and inclusionary units.

c. Preserving the condition and design of publicly-funded
amenities.

2. Mobility: Rebuilding the Housing Tenure Ladder

a. Multiplying the choices that low-income people have when they
seek to improve the type and tenure of their housing.

b. Allowing low-income people to step up to homeownership – in
smaller steps.

3. Security: Backstopping Low-income Households

a. Supporting first-time homeowners after they purchase a home.

b. Intervening to cure defaults and prevent foreclosures.

4. Stability: Supporting Development without Displacement
a. Reinvesting in dilapidated areas without fueling
gentrification.

b. Enacting “smart growth” measures without imposing additional
burdens on inner-city neighborhoods and vulnerable
populations.

5. Flexibility: Adapting to Sites, Funds, & Folks

a. Abandoning a one-size-fits-all approach to community
development.

b. Mixing uses of land and types of housing in scattered-site
projects.

6. Frugality: Shifting Administrative Burdens and Costs

a. Delegating responsibility for monitoring publicly-funded
projects.

b. Delegating responsibility for enforcing publicly-mandated
controls.

Click here to download this list of reasons for supporting community land trusts