Community Land Trusts: A Guide for Local Governments

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS:

A Guide for Local

Governments

NATIONAL

LEAGUE

OF CITIES

About the National League of Cities

The National League of Cities (NLC) is the voice of

America’s cities, towns and villages, representing more

than 200 million people. NLC works to strengthen

local leadership, inﬂuence federal policy and drive

innovative solutions.

NLC’s Center for City Solutions provides research and

analysis on key topics and trends important to cities,

creative solutions to improve the quality of life in

communities, inspiration and ideas for local ocials to

use in tackling tough issues, and opportunities for city

leaders to connect with peers, share experiences and

learn about innovative approaches in cities.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to oer special thanks to

Jim Brooks (Director of Housing and Community

Development at NLC), Kyle Funk (Program Specialist

at NLC) and Michael A. Spotts (President of

Neighborhood Fundamentals, LLC) for their guidance

and contributions to this report. The authors would

also like to extend deep appreciation to the city sta

and community land trust organization team members

who took the time to be interviewed and to provide

information on each of the programs and case studies

detailed in this report. This report would not have

been possible without their willingness to share their

knowledge and insights.

About Grounded Solutions Network

Grounded Solutions Network is a national nonproﬁt

formed by the merger of the National Community

Land Trust Network and Cornerstone Partnership. We

are dedicated to shaping communities to be inclusive

and ﬁlled with opportunity for all. Where we live

matters. It determines what opportunities we have

and how our kids grow up. Everyone should be able to

live in a place that oers opportunity: access to jobs,

parks, public transit, quality schools and stable homes.

Strong and inclusive communities provide the

foundation that people and families need to thrive. We

promote homes that remain aordable for generations

and enable our communities to be stable and strong,

for good.

At Grounded Solutions Network, we know what

policies and strategies work, and we help communities

use them. We work nationally, supporting nonproﬁt

and government practitioners, advocates, elected

ocials, and other housing professionals with the

knowledge and support they need.

Authors

Lauren Lowery, Program Director of Housing and

Community Development, Center for City Solutions;

Matt Weber, State and Local Policy Senior Specialist,

Grounded Solutions Network; Jenee Gaynor, Capacity

Building Manager, Grounded Solutions Network;

Natasha Leonard, Senior Program Specialist, Center

for City Solutions; Tina Lee, Senior Research

Specialist, Center for City Solutions; Alexis Butler,

Senior Program Specialist, Center for City Solutions.

Contents

5 Introduction

6 What is a Community Land Trust?

7 How Does a Community Land Trust Create Aordable

Homeownership Opportunities that Last?

15 Stewardship Principles and Lasting Aordability

16 How is a Community Land Trust Structured?

17 How Does a Community Land Trust Dier from Other Shared

Equity Homeownership Models?

19 Beneﬁts of Community Land Trusts

19 Lasting Aordability

20 Community Empowerment, Racial Equity & Wealth-Building

24 Community Stewardship

25 The Municipal Role in Starting a Community Land Trust

25 Who Starts a Community Land Trust?

26 The Mechanics of Getting Started

32 What Role Can Municipalities Play in Start-Up?

35 The Municipal Role in Sustaining a Community Land Trust

35 Public Land Disposition Policies

40 Funding for Aordable Housing

42 Inclusionary Housing Policies

44 Guaranteeing Permanent Aordability

47 Conclusion

48 Appendices

48 Appendix A: CLT Examples from Around the Country

67 Appendix B: Additional Resources

68 Appendix C: Glossary

70 Endnotes

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES

Introduction

OMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS (CLTs) are born out of the community

that they serve: Their creation is inspired by local needs, their

strategies informed by community stakeholders, and their

operation guided by the public good. But their success greatly hinges on

the support of local government leaders and actors.

This report provides an introduction to the community land trust model by

shedding light on their operation and the beneﬁts they can bring to both

residents and cities. It goes on to highlight key ways that municipal

governments and local leaders can initiate or support CLTs in their

communities, and oers practical examples of community land trusts in

action.

Community land trusts represent the potential to forge deep connections

within a community, bringing homeowners much-needed stability and

support. And as municipalities consider how to rebuild and reinforce their

housing strategies in the wake of COVID-19, CLTs oer an opportunity to

leverage one-time investments that will foster lasting aordability and

racial justice.

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES

In doing so, CLTs help communities:

 Address the growing aordability gap between what people can

aord to pay for housing and how much that housing costs.

 Provide wealth-building opportunities for families that otherwise

would not be able to own a home, particularly families of low-to-

moderate income and those that are Black, Indigenous or people of

color (BIPOC).

 Preserve community control of land, reduce absentee ownership and

resist processes of gentriﬁcation and displacement.

 Capture the public’s one-time investment in aordable homeownership

for the long-term beneﬁt of community members, over and over again.

 Weather periods of economic downturn through eective property

stewardship and homeowner support.

How Does a Community Land Trust

Create Aordable Homeownership

Opportunities that Last?

Many municipalities and nonproﬁt organizations are on a hamster wheel of

subsidy: Because incomes are not keeping pace with rising housing costs,

even if down payment assistance grants or loans are repaid to the

municipality when a homeowner moves on, the repaid amount is not

enough to help another family of similar means purchase a home.

Municipalities often ﬁnd themselves in the position of needing more and

more subsidy to serve each family.

CLTs create aordable homeownership opportunities that last by 1)

acquiring and holding land, 2) acquiring, developing or rehabilitating

housing on that land (or partnering with others to do so), 3) selling the

housing — but not the land — to low-income purchasers at a price they

can aord, and 4) limiting the price appreciation of the property to ensure

that every time the home is resold, it goes to another low-income

purchaser at a price that purchaser can aord.

What is a

Community

Land Trust?

COMMUNITY LAND TRUST is a nonproﬁt, community-based

organization that acquires, owns and stewards land permanently

for the common good. CLTs are best known for providing

aordable homeownership opportunities that last for generations. They do

this by retaining ownership of a plot of land and selling the housing on that

land to lower-income households. In exchange for below-market prices,

purchasers agree to resale restrictions that ensure the homes will remain

aordable to subsequent buyers. The CLT model allows lower-income

households to build wealth through homeownership, while also providing

the community with a stock of homes that will remain aordable for

generations.

While CLTs are best known for providing aordable homeownership

opportunities, CLTs can use their land for any number of purposes. These

include providing aordable single and multi-family rental opportunities,

mixed-income and mixed-use developments, community-oriented

commercial spaces, community gardens and much more. In this report, we

will focus principally on CLTs that use their land to provide aordable

homeownership opportunities that last.

Lasting aordability requirements are what set community

land trusts apart from more traditional forms of aordable

housing development.

CLTs ensure that the homes on their land are

aordable not only to the ﬁrst buyer or renter, but to every subsequent

buyer or renter as well.

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES

Public dollars invested in the project often form the bulk of the subsidy

needed to make the housing aordable to its ﬁrst purchaser, who is

typically someone earning between 50 and 80 percent of area median

income (AMI). Flexible local and state funding that prioritizes lasting

aordability in housing is very important to the success of CLTs and their

ability to operate at scale.

Selling the Home, but not the Land. When CLTs sell a home, they

sell only the improvements on the land, such as the house and garage.

Title to the land itself remains with the CLT. Rather than selling the land,

the CLT enters into a long-term (usually 99-year) renewable lease with the

prospective homeowner for use of the land. This “ground lease” gives

homeowners and their descendants the right to use the land for as long as

they wish to live there. As explained in the next section, this is also key to

ensuring the lasting aordability of the home.

Ensuring Long-term Aordability. The ground lease speciﬁes the

terms on which the homeowner may sell their home, and typically requires

the owner to sell the home to another low-income household for an

aordable price. Resale formulas vary between CLTs, but the formulas are

generally crafted to allow homeowners to capture some of the increased

value of their home due to appreciation, while also ensuring that the sales

price is aordable to another low-income household. In this way,

CLTs balance homeowners’ goals of wealth accumulation with the

community’s ongoing need for aordable housing.

CLT homeownership oen serves as a stepping-stone to

more traditional, market-rate homeownership.

A recent

study found that CLT homeowners typically invest less than $2,000

at the time of purchase, and accumulate approximately $14,000

in equity when they sell their home.

Almost 60 percent of sellers

use the equity from their CLT homes to purchase a market-rate

home after selling.

CLT homeownership thus opens the door to

conventional homeownership for many low-income households. In

doing so, it gives them access to the wealth-building opportunities

that middle- and upper-income households have long enjoyed.

Almost 60% of sellers

use the equity from

their CLT homes to

purchase a market-rate

home after selling

Acquiring & Holding Land. Permanent ownership of land is one of the

deﬁning features of CLTs. Land in a CLT is held in perpetuity for the beneﬁt

of the community. Accordingly, whether CLTs acquire land on the open

market, through land donations, or at a discount through public entities

such as city agencies or county land banks, the CLT retains that land in

perpetuity. CLT land is never sold.

Developing, Rehabbing or Acquiring Homes. CLTs that provide

aordable homeownership opportunities often follow the same

development processes as most nonproﬁt housing developers: They

secure funding, complete their pre-development and due diligence tasks,

retain a general contractor, and pay for the costs of construction or

rehabilitation.

However, not all CLTs serve as developers, and even those that do develop

their own units often bring land and aordable units into their portfolio in

multiple ways. CLTs, for example, may collaborate with another nonproﬁt or

for-proﬁt developer in a joint development project. CLTs may also

collaborate with municipalities to receive, monitor or steward units

generated through inclusionary housing ordinances. Some CLTs operate

“buyer-initiated” programs as well, in which the CLT provides a subsidy to

allow homebuyers to select a market-rate unit. In exchange for the subsidy

— which makes the market-rate unit aordable to the homebuyer — the

buyer agrees to place the property into the CLT’s portfolio of permanently

aordable units.

Signiﬁcantly, when CLTs act as developers, they fund their projects from

the same mix of sources as other nonproﬁt housing developers. Funding

sources may include public funds such as Community Development Block

Grants (CDBG) or HOME Investment Partnership dollars, state or local

housing trust funds, grants from foundations and other civic institutions,

private donations, conventional loans from ﬁnancial institutions, and more.

Ground Lease

A renewable and

inheritable lease between

a CLT and homeowner

for use of a parcel of

land. While generally

granting homeowners

most of the rights that

come with conventional

homeownership, a ground

lease also speciﬁes resale

terms, which is key to

ensuring the lasting

aordability of the home.

Resale Formulas

Terms established in a

ground lease that set the

maximum resale price of a

home. Resale formulas are

typically designed to allow

homeowners to capture a

portion of the increased

value of their home,

while also maintaining

aordability for another

low-income household.

60%

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES

To see this dierence in practice, it is helpful to compare some simpliﬁed

homebuying numbers in two hypothetical communities: DPA Town, which

operates a down payment assistance program, and CLT Town, which has a

community land trust. Both programs target households earning up to 80

percent of area median income. In both communities, a starter home costs

$200,000. However, an income-eligible homebuyer can only aord to pay

$155,000 for a home. That leaves a $45,000 aordability gap in both

places.

DPA Town ﬁlls that gap by providing the homebuyer with a $45,000

forgivable loan, specifying that the homeowner need not repay the loan if

they live in the house for at least 10 years. The homebuyer takes out a

conventional loan to pay the remaining $155,000 cost of the home.

CLT Town, by contrast, ﬁlls the gap by providing a $45,000 grant to the

CLT to subsidize the cost of the home. The CLT uses the grant to lower the

sales price of the home to the aordable price of $155,000, which the

buyer ﬁnances with a conventional loan. The table below summarizes

these purchases from our two hypothetical towns:

DPA Town CLT Town

Market Price of Home $200,000 $200,000

Sales Price of Home $200,000 $155,000

What Buyer

Can Aord

$155,000

(conventional loan)

$155,000

(conventional loan)

Subsidy Needed $45,000

(to buyer, as DPA)

$45,000

(to CLT)

Fast-forward ten years. Starter homes in both communities are now worth

$240,000, due to appreciation. Wages have increased, but they have not

kept pace with home prices. A homebuyer with an income at 80 percent

AMI can now aord to pay $185,000 for a home, leaving a $55,000

aordability gap.

If our buyer in DPA Town sells her home the day after her 10-year

aordability period ends, she would enjoy a signiﬁcant net gain from the

CLTs in Practice: Lasting Affordability

vs. Down Payment Assistance

TO FURTHER UNDERSTAND HOW CLTS WORK, IT’S HELPFUL TO

CONTRAST THEM WITH MUNICIPAL DOWN PAYMENT ASSISTANCE

PROGRAMS.

Down payment assistance programs typically provide homebuyers with a

loan at the time of a home purchase that is forgivable over a period of

5-to-10 years. When the loan is forgiven, the homeowner is free to resell the

home at whatever price the market will bear. If home prices have increased

signiﬁcantly, the homeowner will see a signiﬁcant gain in equity. Thus, down

payment assistance programs are strong wealth-building tools.

However, each forgivable loan serves only one household. To provide

another household with an aordable homeownership opportunity, the

municipality will have to ﬁnd the resources for another down payment

assistance loan. Down payment assistance programs thus require a steady

ﬂow of resources to operate. Indeed, the cost of operating such a program

typically increases over time as home prices increase.

CLTs, by contrast, deliver more modest gains in wealth-building for

individual households, but provide multiple households with aordable

homeownership opportunities from a single subsidy investment. They do

this by using subsidy dollars to set the initial price of a home at a price that

low- and moderate-income households can aord, and then, through the

provisions of a ground lease, by ensuring that the home is aordably priced

each time it is sold thereafter.

Because incomes typically rise over time, what is an “aordable price” for

any particular income level (e.g. 60 percent of AMI), also increases over

time. CLT homeowners, therefore, typically sell homes for somewhat more

than they paid. This gives the sellers modest gains in equity. At the same

time, the resale formula that governs the sale ensures that the low- or

moderate-income family that purchases the home pays an aordable price.

Signiﬁcantly, no additional or ongoing subsidy is needed to achieve this

lasting aordability. Once established, CLT homes remain aordable for

the long term.

COMPARING DOWN PAYMENT ASSISTANCE TO A

COMMUNITY LAND TRUST: THE FIRST HOMEOWNER

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES

While the DPA program does more for one household’s wealth building

in this example, the CLT program comes out ahead when we consider

how to serve additional households. In DPA Town, the homebuyer

retained the town’s initial $45,000 subsidy that made the starter home

aordable. This means that to make the starter home aordable for the

next homebuyer, DPA Town will have to come up with $55,000 in down

payment assistance — $10,000 more than it provided ten years earlier,

because wages have not kept pace with home prices.

In CLT Town, by contrast, no additional subsidy is needed. Thanks to the

restrictions set by the ground lease, the home is already priced at a level

that an income-eligible buyer can aord. The initial homebuyer is

eectively “paying forward” the Town’s initial $45,000 subsidy to keep the

home aordable for the next occupant. Indeed, that subsidy has

eectively grown to $55,000, as that is the sum now needed to ﬁll the

aordability gap.

sale. Selling the home for $240,000 would leave her a net gain

of $85,000 on the sale after paying o her original $155,000 loan

($40,000 in appreciation plus the $45,000 down payment assistance that

she is not required to repay). She would also take home whatever equity

she has built-up through ten years of mortgage payments, subtracting any

miscellaneous expenses such as closing costs.

The picture looks quite dierent in CLT Town. If the CLT homeowner

chooses to sell her home, she must follow the ground lease requirement to

sell the home at a price that an income-eligible buyer can aord —

$185,000 in this case. After her initial loan of $155,000 is repaid upon sale

of the home, she would earn a net gain of $30,000, in addition to the

equity she has built-up through ten years of mortgage payments, minus

closing costs.

When considering only these two households, it is clear that the DPA

buyer receives a much larger net gain from the sale of her home than the

CLT homebuyer: $85,000 compared to $30,000; however, the CLT model

contemplates both household and community-wide beneﬁts.

DPA Town CLT Town

Initial Purchase

Market Price of Home $200,000 $200,000

Sales Price of Home $200,000 $155,000

What Buyer Can Aord $155,000

(conventional loan)

$155,000

(conventional loan)

Subsidy Needed $45,000

(to buyer, as DPA)

$45,000

(to CLT)

10 Years Later

New Market Value $240,000 $240,000

Sales Price $240,000 $185,000

Seller Portion

$240,000

- $155,000

(loan repayment)

$ 85,000

(plus equity built-up

from loan payments)

$185,000

- $155,000

(loan repayment)

$ 30,000

(plus equity built-up

from loan payments)

COMPARING DOWN PAYMENT ASSISTANCE TO A

COMMUNITY LAND TRUST: 10 YEARS LATER

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES

Stewardship Principles and

Lasting Aordability

Achieving lasting aordability is not as simple as demanding that a

home be sold at an aordable price at every resale. CLTs have learned that

to ensure lasting aordability, they must be eective stewards of their

community assets. Speciﬁcally, CLTs must provide four kinds of

stewardship at once:

Stewardship of Structures or Homes. If a home is to remain a

community asset for the long term, it needs to be maintained in good

condition. So, CLTs do things like require that the home by adequately

insured and approve all substantial renovations and additions. Some CLTs

also educate homeowners about preventative maintenance, encourage

certain capital improvements, and help homeowners through renovations

to prevent contractor fraud.

Stewardship of Homeowners. CLTs support homeowners in several

ways, not least of which is to design resale formulas that fairly balance

ongoing aordability with the opportunity for wealth creation. CLTs

recognize that it is not enough that buyers attain homeownership, they

also need to retain it over time. To that end, CLTs do things like require

homebuyer counseling before purchase, review all mortgage and reﬁnance

documents to prevent predatory lending, and oer post-purchase

counseling and foreclosure prevention counseling to help bolster

homeowners who need it.

Stewardship of Public Funds. CLTs are stewards of the public funds

used to make their homes aordable in the ﬁrst place. Every CLT makes a

promise that those funds will serve generation after generation of

homeowners. Accordingly, they oversee every element of the resale of CLT

homes, including calculating the formula price and income-certifying the

next homebuyer to ensure that the buyer meets the income target

speciﬁed in the ground lease.

Stewardship of the Organization. In addition to stewarding homes,

homeowners, and public funds, CLTs are also stewards of themselves as an

organization. Each CLT has a perpetual responsibility for the property it

Lasting Aordability

A durable system of resale

restrictions and supports

that ensure that, upon

resale, a home will be

sold to income-qualiﬁed

homebuyers at a price

that they can aord. CLTs

ensure lasting aordability

through the use of ground

leases. Other shared-equity

homeownership programs

may use deed restrictions

or restrictive covenants

for the same purpose.

Stewardship

Activities that CLTs

undertake to ensure

the success of CLT

homeowners, as well as

the long-term viability

and aordability of

homes on CLT land.

This process happens again and again, at every resale of the CLT home,

keeping it aordable in perpetuity. In this way, CLTs balance wealth

accumulation for the individual homeowner with ongoing aordability

for the community, serving generations of homeowners without

requiring additional subsidy. The table below illustrates the dierence

between the DPA and CLT approaches:

DPA Town CLT Town

Initial Purchase

Market Price of Home $200,000 $200,000

Sales Price of Home $200,000 $155,000

What Buyer Can Aord $155,000

(conventional loan)

$155,000

(conventional loan)

Subsidy Needed $45,000

(to buyer, as DPA)

$45,000

(to CLT)

10 Years Later

New Market Value $240,000 $240,000

Sales Price $240,000 $185,000

Seller Portion

$240,000

–$155,000

(loan repayment)

$ 85,000

(plus equity built-up

from loan payments)

$185,000

– $155,000

(loan repayment)

$ 30,000

(plus equity built-up

from loan payments)

Housing the Next

Income-Eligible Family

Market Price of Home $240,000 $240,000

Sales Price of Home $240,000 $185,000

What Buyer Can Aord $185,000

(conventional loan)

$185,000

(conventional loan)

NEW Buyer

Subsidy Needed

$55,000

COMPARING DOWN PAYMENT ASSISTANCE TO A COMMUNITY

LAND TRUST: FOSTERING LASTING AFFORDABILITY

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES

Because two thirds of the board is made up of community members and/

or leaseholders, the community holds the majority of votes. For this

reason, CLTs are often referred to as community-controlled

organizations.

How Does a Community Land Trust

Dier from Other Shared Equity

Homeownership Models?

Community land trusts are often compared to other shared equity

homeownership models, such as limited-equity housing cooperatives

and deed-restricted, below market rate homeownership programs. The

three models are similar in that they all provide resale-restricted, owner-

occupied housing where the “bundle” of property rights is divided

between the homeowner and the community. However, they dier in

important ways:

In a limited equity housing cooperative (LEHC), members own shares in a

cooperative corporation (co-op), which, in turn, owns multiple dwelling

units — often in a multi-family building.

Owning a share entitles a household to occupy one of the co-op’s dwelling

units and to vote in the co-op’s governance. A cooperative is a “limited

equity” cooperative when the sales price of an ownership share is subject

to a resale formula that limits its value to keep it aordable. LEHC rules

also restrict purchasers to those within certain income limits. These

provisions ensure that the housing remains permanently aordable to

families and households of modest means.

holds, and with that comes a duty to focus on the sustainability of its own

operations. CLTs support themselves by seeking donations and operating

grants. If developing their own homes, they may be able to collect

developer fees to fund ongoing operations. In addition, most will collect

modest monthly lease fees from homeowners, and they may collect fees

at resale of a CLT unit. Many CLTs also own apartment buildings that they

rent at aordable rates to income-qualiﬁed tenants. Such rental holdings

both advance the CLT’s mission and provide regular cash ﬂows that help

sustain the organization.

Using these and other strategies, CLTs ensure that they are able to

maintain the forever commitment they are making to the community.

How is a Community Land

Trust Structured?

Another distinctive feature of community land trusts is their organizational

structure. The traditional CLT is a membership-based organization that

serves a deﬁned geographic area, which may range from a

neighborhood to an entire city or region.

Membership is open to anyone within the CLT’s deﬁned service area. This

is one of the elements that makes the classic community land trust unique.

Instead of just serving the direct beneﬁciaries — those living or working on

land trust land — the community land trust is accountable to the entire

community it serves.

CLTs have a “tripartite” board, meaning that the board of directors is

divided into three equal groups of representatives:

 A third of the board is made up of leaseholders, who are people living

on or using CLT land.

 Another third is made up of community members.

 The ﬁnal third is made up of technical experts, funders or other

stakeholders in the organization.

The Tripartite

Board of CLTs

Two thirds of the

board is made up of

community members

and/or leaseholders, so

the community holds

the majority of votes

Leaseholders

Community members

Experts, Funders

Did You Know?

While these funding sources do not require lasting aordability,

many CLTs leverage HOME, CDBG and even LIHTC programs in

their work to provide lasting aordability.

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES

Beneﬁts of Community

Land Trusts

OMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS oer

numerous beneﬁts that can aid cities in

expanding access to quality, safe and

aordable housing for low- and moderate-

income households. As cities explore equitable

land allocation and land use solutions, they seek

approaches that center sustainability and

address the ongoing racial disparities

embedded in local housing markets addressing

current aordable housing needs without

making provision for future demand creates a

revolving door within a city’s housing stock,

with aordable units evaporating from the

market as quickly as they arrived. Community

land trusts can help address this cyclical

challenge by gradually increasing the number of

aordable units over time and ensuring that

these units retain lasting aordability.

Lasting Aordability

One of the chief beneﬁts that community land

trusts deliver for cities is lasting aordability. For

many municipalities, this represents a real

paradigm shift. Cities have long used federal

programs such as the HOME Investment

Partnership Program or the Community

Development Block Grant Program to make

housing aordable to renters and buyers. They

have also relied on the federal Low Income

Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) program to drive

the development and rehabilitation of aordable

units. All of these programs come with

aordability requirements, but all of those

requirements expire after a limited period —

typically between 10 and 30 years.

In practice, LEHCs tend to be smaller than CLTs.

An LEHC may own a single multi-family building,

while CLTs may own land across an entire

neighborhood or entire city. Another important

dierence is in governance arrangements:

Governance of LEHCs is generally limited to the

homeowners in the co-op building. By contrast,

CLT governance includes CLT homeowners, as

well as members who live in the CLT’s service

area but do not own a CLT home.

Despite these dierences, it’s important to

note that CLTs and LEHCs can work in concert.

An LEHC, for example, may own a multi-family

building that sits on CLT-owned land.

Deed-restricted, below market rate

homeownership programs do many of the same

things as CLTs, but without the ground lease or

the governance structure providing community

control.

These programs are often run by municipalities

as part of an inclusionary housing initiative or by

a nonproﬁt housing organization, such as a

Habitat for Humanity aliate or other

community development corporation. In

inclusionary housing programs, municipalities

require developers to convey a certain portion

of units in a development to income-qualiﬁed

purchasers at aordable prices. These units are

then subject to deed restrictions with terms

very similar to those of a ground lease, such as

terms governing the resale price of the unit or

the income level of eligible purchasers.

Enforcement of the deed restrictions falls to the

municipality, or its designated administrator,

which could be a CLT.

Unlike CLTs, deed-restricted, below market rate

homeownership programs generally do not

have a close connection to a particular

neighborhood, and typically do not serve as

tools for community empowerment and control

of land. Laws vary signiﬁcantly state-to-state

with regard to how long a deed restriction may

remain in eect. In some programs, deed

restrictions may expire after a speciﬁed number

of years, while in others, they may remain in

eect for the life of the building to which they

apply.

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

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The lasting aordability that CLTs

provide is itself a form of community

empowerment. It ensures that low- and

moderate-income residents will have a home

— and therefore a presence and a stake — in a

neighborhood they might otherwise be priced

out of. Ensuring access to such homes and

neighborhoods can be a particularly salient goal

in communities of color, who have often been

pushed out of places where they live, or

excluded from neighborhoods where they might

want to live. CLTs are ﬂexible tools that can

ensure that both homeownership and rental

opportunities remain accessible in a

neighborhood, while also safeguarding a mix of

commercial and community spaces that serve

new and old residents alike.

Too often, government itself has served as a

primary mechanism of exclusion and

displacement in these communities.

Exclusionary zoning, redlining, and “slum

clearance” or “blight removal” initiatives are

some of the more notorious policies that have

had racially exclusionary impacts. Less often

cited are public investments in neighborhood

improvement initiatives.

These eorts often have the well-intentioned

goal of bringing greatly-needed amenities to

disinvested neighborhoods. However, they can

have the negative side-eect of raising housing

costs and may spark processes of neighborhood

change that leave long-time residents and

others who are similarly situated excluded from

New Communities, Inc:

The First Community Land Trust

The ﬁrst community land trust in the country was a product of the civil rights

movement of the 1960s. In Albany, Georgia, Black farmers who asserted their right

to vote were being pushed o land owned by white landowners. They sought

a way to farm land aordably and securely, without the threat of displacement.

Taking inspiration from kubutzes in Israel, they formed New Communities, Inc. The

corporation purchased over 5,000 acres of farmland, becoming the largest Black-

owned farm in Georgia. It also entered into long-term leases allowing the farmers

and others to build homes and operate businesses on the property. This eort

to advance racial equity and maintain aordability by separating the ownership

of land from the ownership of homes served as the model on which the modern

community land trust movement is built.

For more information, see newcommunitiesinc.com

The result is something of a “housing hamster

wheel” — new aordable housing goes into the

city while the aordability requirements on

previously subsidized housing expire. This can

leave many housing and community

development ocials feeling as though they are

running in place — or worse, losing ground —

when it comes to closing the city’s aordability

gap. Permanent aordability changes these

dynamics.

Once established, housing in a community land

trust remains aordable forever. This means

that, over time, the stock of aordable housing

in a community steadily grows as cities use

annual subsidy dollars to create additional

housing units, rather than repeatedly working to

replace units when their aordability restrictions

expire. The impact of this permanent and

growing stock of aordable homes can be

transformative:

Lasting aordability provides stability

for families.

CLT homes are, by design, homes

that ﬁt households’ budgets. This aordability

leaves families better positioned to pay for life’s

other necessities (e.g., health, food and

transportation costs), to save for life’s

challenges (e.g. loss of employment, medical

issues or vehicle repairs), and to take advantage

of life’s opportunities (e.g. education, training, or

making a down payment on a new home).

The entire community beneﬁts from this

stability. For example, research shows that

children in families that experience housing

instability often suer adverse impacts to their

health, educational attainment, and income in

adulthood.

The stable housing that CLTs

provide to families helps lay the groundwork for

children’s lifelong success.

Lasting aordability helps build

inclusive communities that resist

processes of displacement and

gentriﬁcation. In many cities, home prices are

increasing faster than local incomes. In some

neighborhoods, this problem is acute — prices

are skyrocketing well beyond the reach of

residents who have long lived there. Often it is

people of color who ﬁnd themselves excluded

from a neighborhood they could once aord as

processes of gentriﬁcation take hold.

CLTs help communities resist these economic

and cultural disruptions. CLT homes remain

aordable even as the cost of homes around

them continue to increase. Their presence in a

community can moderate forces of change,

contributing to neighborhood stability,

combating the negative eects of gentriﬁcation,

and creating or preserving diverse, mixed-

income neighborhoods.

Community

Empowerment, Racial

Equity & Wealth-Building

Community land trusts can serve as powerful

tools to achieve community empowerment,

racial equity and wealth-building. All three of

these goals have been at the heart of the CLT

movement from the outset. Indeed, the ﬁrst CLT

in the country, New Communities, Inc., was

formed by a group of Black farmers in Georgia

for these very purposes.

$200,000

$180,000

$160,000

$140,000

$120,000

$100,00

$80,000

$60,000

$40,000

$20,000

Non-Hispanic White

Households

$171,700

$9,567

$25,000

quity in Home

Other Assets

Black

Households

Hispanic Households

(Any Race)

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES

nearly 18 times greater than the net worth of

Black households, and nearly 7 times greater

than that of Hispanic households.

CLTs can help close the homeownership

gap. A 2019 study of 58 shared equity

homeownership programs, including community

land trusts, revealed that 95 percent of such

homes are aordable to households earning 80

percent of AMI, and nearly half of such homes

are aordable to very low-income households

earning up to 50 percent of AMI.

CLTs are thus

eective tools for helping low-income

households become homeowners by making

homeownership more aordable and more

stable.

CLTs also help stabilize

homeownership. If homeownership is to

serve as a tool of wealth accumulation for

low-income households, it is critical that such

households be able to remain in their homes

over several years. Many CLTs achieve this by

successfully performing their stewardship

functions intended to support homeowners and

stabilize homeownership. With this support, CLT

homeowners are much less likely to move in any

given year than their counterparts in market-

rate homes.

Moreover, homeowners in CLTs

were 10 times less likely to be in foreclosure

proceedings and eight times less likely to be

seriously delinquent than homeowners across all

incomes in the private market during the 2008-

10 housing crisis.

CLTs succeed in building wealth among

low-income homeowners. One study

found that the median household in a shared-

equity home accumulated about $14,000 in

equity during the course of homeownership.

This equity gain includes both the household’s

share of the increase in the price of the home, as

well as the “forced savings” they achieved by

partially paying down the mortgage.

The

research shows that 58 percent of shared equity

homeowners who sell their homes go on to buy

another home at market-rate.

Accordingly, CLT

homeownership can serve as a stepping-stone

to conventional homeownership for low-income

households.

CLT homes have signiﬁcant potential to

help low-income households of color

access homeownership and build

wealth. In 2000, just 13 percent of community

land trust homeowners were people of color. By

2018, that ﬁgure had increased to 43 percent.

Despite this progress, shared-equity homes are

overwhelmingly owned by white, non-Hispanic

heads of households. However, cities can work

to expand opportunities for shared equity

ownership among Black, Hispanic/Latino, Asian

and Indigenous households by supporting

shared equity programs in targeted

neighborhoods and removing common barriers

to homeownership. Creating avenues that

extend aordable homeownership to

households of color who have historically been

shut out from real estate-generated wealth will

aid cities in achieving greater levels of housing

justice in their comprehensive housing

strategies.

a neighborhood. Municipalities can

counterbalance these displacement pressures

by supporting CLTs in their communities,

thereby advancing racial equity and enhancing

community empowerment in the process.

Many CLTs actively seek to empower

and engage community members in

decision-making. CLTs are often driven by a

commitment to giving voice to residents who

too often have been excluded from secure

housing arrangements. This empowerment

begins by including such residents in the

governance of the CLT through its tripartite

board, but it does not end there.

CLTs often work with residents to identify

community needs and leverage CLT resources

to meet those needs. They also organize

residents to shape the future of the city by

developing comprehensive plans, and weighing-

in on policy and development proposals

impacting low- and moderate-income residents

across the city. In this way, they enhance the

democratic control of land and housing in the

cities where they operate.

The wealth-building that CLTs provide

for low-income households can also

advance racial equity. Historically, many

low- and moderate-income buyers of color have

been unable to aord or qualify for the

purchase of a home. This has contributed to a

substantial racial wealth gap in our country. As

the chart below illustrates, the net worth of

non-Hispanic white households in the U.S. is

Source: U.S. Census Bureau. Wealth, Asset Ownership, & Debt of Households Detailed Tables: 2017.

RACIAL WEALTH GAP: MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD NET WORTH

By Race and Ethnicity in U.S. in 2017

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

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The Municipal Role in

Starting a Community

Land Trust

UNICIPALITIES TYPICALLY DO NOT

start community land trusts by

themselves. They do, however, have a

signiﬁcant role to play in the start-up process. In

this section, we provide an overview of the

start-up steps for a community land trust.

Topics include who starts a community land

trust, the mechanics of getting started, and the

key role that municipalities can play in this

initial phase.

Who Starts a Community

Land Trust?

Community land trusts are, at heart, community-

based organizations. They typically grow from

residents’ eorts to respond to particular

community concerns, such as a need for

neighborhood revitalization, a demand for more

aordable homeownership opportunities, or

distress over growing displacement pressures.

An ethos of community control also underlies

most pushes for CLTs — people come together

in an eort to change their circumstances for

themselves, and to empower residents to shape

the neighborhoods and city in which they live.

Accordingly, the short answer to the

question of “who starts a community

land trust?” is, “the community does.”

“The community,” however, can take many

forms. Sometimes an ad hoc group of residents

leads the push for a community land trust. At

other times, an established housing organization

takes the lead. Still other leaders may include

churches, existing community organizations,

neighborhood associations, and more, or a

coalition of such groups. Each of these entities

brings dierent assets to the task of organizing

a CLT, and each faces dierent challenges.

However, all can be successful in moving from

an idea of a CLT to its implementation.

Community Stewardship

Beyond the ﬁnancial advantages, a properly

managed community land trust oers

stewardship beneﬁts that support the vitality of

both the occupying resident and the

neighborhood at large.

The added layer of stewardship within

community land trust models ensures supports

for the individuals within the household, such as

ﬁnancial literacy and coaching resources, as well

as guaranteeing that the physical structure of

the home is adequately maintained.

Intentionally investing in those residing

within the home, as well as the physical

asset of the property, erects a holistic

model of community care that can

protect against residential displacement

and economic predation while securing

quality housing for generations to come.

As cities explore and deploy both emergency

and recovery housing strategies, such as in

response to COVID-19, community land trusts

provide an avenue for lasting aordability,

greater economic opportunity and stability for

communities that have historically been ousted

from homeownership. Cities must be intentional

in creating sustainable housing solutions, and

community land trusts are a vehicle to greater

housing equity for Black and Hispanic/Latino

households and can aid in addressing wealth

inequality within cities.

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

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 Neighborhood associations

 Clergy and other church leaders

 Other community/anchor institutions

As they have these conversations, CLT proponents should always be on

the lookout for partners who could join the proponents in advocating for

and organizing a CLT.

Determine Who the CLT

will Serve and How

The next step of the process is to dive deeper into the details and deﬁne a

vision for the CLT. The decisions made in this phase will be informed by

the conversations had in the ﬁrst phase. They will also likely be revisited in

future phases as understandings and priorities shift over the course of the

organizing process. Key decisions to make at this point concern the CLT’s

mission, geography and functions.

Mission

CLTs may be organized for any number of purposes. Clarity on the CLT’s

mission will help the organization make strategic decisions going forward

as to how it will operate. CLTs are often organized to:

 Increase aordable ownership opportunities for low- or middle-income

homebuyers, particularly buyers who are Black, Indigenous or People

of Color

 Increase aordable rental opportunities for low-income renters,

particularly renters who are BIPOC

 Resist processes of gentriﬁcation and displacement

 Stabilize distressed neighborhoods

 Promote income diversity in neighborhoods

 Decrease community wealth disparities

 Provide stability, equity, and security to people who have not had

access to this through homeownership in the past

 Allow workers to live near where they work

 Increase community control and autonomy

The Mechanics of Getting Started

Community leaders can start a CLT in any number of ways. Below is an

overview of the process that Grounded Solutions Network recommends. It

often takes about two years to move from exploratory meetings for a CLT

to the ﬁrst “shovel in the ground” or closing on a CLT home. For more

detailed information on starting a CLT, please see Grounded Solutions

Network’s Start-up Community Land Trust Hub.

Build a Community

Vision

Proponents of a CLT should begin the organizing process by having a

community conversation about housing needs and concerns, and the role

a community land trust could play in the local housing and development

landscape. Indeed, they should have many conversations, ﬁnding a variety

of ways to engage with stakeholders on these topics — including through

one-on-one discussions, small and large group meetings, in-person and

online events, focus groups, and more.

An important goal of these conversations is to identify who is already

working to address the needs and concerns raised by the community, and

in what ways. Ultimately, the community should arrive at a shared vision of

the need for a CLT and the role it could play in the local housing

ecosystem. Key stakeholders might include:

 Potential CLT homebuyers

 Residents of the CLT’s likely service area

 Community development corporations and nonproﬁt housing

developers serving the area

 Housing counseling organizations

 Local government representatives, especially in the city’s planning and

community development department

 The local land bank, if there is one

 Prospective funders

 Real estate professionals (e.g. Realtors, bankers, lawyers,

for-proﬁt developers)

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

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 Housing sales and resales

 Marketing and relationship-building to create a qualiﬁed buyer pipeline

 Post-purchase homeowner counseling

 Maintenance and repair support, including facilitating connections to

funding sources

 Foreclosure prevention and support

Decisions regarding mission, geography and function are interrelated. A

CLT serving a distressed urban neighborhood in a city with a well-

established homebuyer counseling organization, for example, may focus

on rehabilitating existing homes in the neighborhood while partnering with

the homebuyer counseling organization to identify and pre-qualify

purchasers. Alternatively, in a city with a vibrant nonproﬁt housing sector

and a strong inclusionary housing ordinance, a CLT may do no

development work at all, focusing instead on stewarding homes developed

by others to ensure lasting aordability.

Determine How the CLT will be

Structured and Governed

The “classic” community land trust is an independent nonproﬁt

organization governed by a tripartite board of directors. The “tripartite”

board consists of equal numbers of CLT homeowners, members from the

neighborhood or other geography served by the CLT, and other “at large”

members who are selected because they are well-positioned to guide the

work the CLT does, potentially including bankers, lawyers, foundation

leaders, and leaders of other community organizations.

While this is the traditional governance structure for CLTs, there is room

for variation. It often, for example, makes sense to operate the CLT as a

program or subsidiary of an existing organization during the start-up

phase. This can make it easier to support and sustain CLT operations by

sharing sta, oce space and ﬁnancial resources. During this phase, there

may be no board at all, or the board may be appointed by the parent

organization. As the CLT becomes more established, it can be spun-o as

its own free-standing organization, run by the traditional tripartite board.

Geography

CLTs can be organized to serve one particular neighborhood, an entire city

or a region as their service area. Usually the smaller the geography, the

closer the connection with the community. Larger geographies, by

contrast, allow for greater eciencies of scale, and may present a wider

range of opportunities for impact. Typically it does not make sense for

more than one CLT to serve the same geography.

Functions

In many ways, decisions about what functions a CLT will have are

decisions about how the CLT will relate to other existing entities. If an

existing organization is already meeting certain needs in a prospective

CLT’s designated service area, it may make sense for the CLT to partner

with that organization, rather than creating a redundant program. If no

one is ﬁlling a particular role, however, or if additional capacity is needed

in a certain area, then it may make sense for the CLT to take on that

function. CLT functions commonly include some or all of the following:

 Housing development

 Pre-purchase counseling

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

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Additionally, the new organization will need to make critical aordability

decisions. One of those decisions is the targeted income level of

prospective homebuyers, which will inﬂuence the initial aordable

purchase price. The targeted income level is typically set as some

percentage of area median income. In choosing a particular AMI to

target, it is important that CLTs consider the racial equity implications of

that decision.

For example, “moderate income” households are often deﬁned as those

earning between 80 percent and 120 percent AMI. In many markets,

however, the income of a large proportion of households of color falls

below the 80 percent threshold. The decision to target “moderate

income” households, therefore, is likely to lead to a population of CLT

households who are whiter than the city’s population as a whole.

In addition to income levels and initial sales prices, CLTs also must select the

formula that will be used to determine the price of the unit on resale. Resale

formulas come in many varieties, but the three common types that are

relatively easy to understand and to administer include:

 Fixed rate resale formulas: The homeowner’s initial aordable price

(what they paid to buy their home — or the “base price”) is increased

over time by a ﬁxed annual percentage of either simple or compound

interest.

 Index based resale formulas: The base price is increased over time

by the percent change in a published index, such as area median

income or the consumer price index.

 Appraisal based resale formulas: The base price is increased over

time by adding to it a speciﬁed percentage of the increase in the

home’s market value. The increase in market value is measured by

market appraisals at the time of initial purchase and the time of resale.

There are good reasons to choose any of the above formulas, and a CLT

should carefully weigh its mission, goals, and the ease of understanding

and administering a formula when making that choice. As CLTs gain

experience with a particular formula, they may adjust it in future ground

leases, or in current ground leases by agreement with existing

homeowners.

For more information on aordable pricing and resale formulas,

please see

Grounded Solutions Network’s website.

Develop a

Business Plan

By the time CLT proponents have completed the three steps outlined

above, they are ready to prepare a business plan for the CLT. A business

plan lays out the decisions and careful thinking that have gone into the

development of a CLT in a form that supporters, funders, lenders, and

others will understand. It also prompts detailed thinking about some

aspects of the organization and operations that may not have been

explored to date. The business plan might include:

 Community needs

 Mission

 Geography & clientele

 Organizational structure

 Functions and likely partners

 A three- to ﬁve-year plan for bringing the CLT’s portfolio to scale

 Stang needs

 Organizational budget

 Sample documents, including a draft ground lease based on the 2011

National Model Ground Lease

Most groups that embark on a business planning process work with a

consultant or expert to help facilitate the process and to bring an

outsider’s perspective.

Lay the Groundwork

for the First Project

A ﬂedgling CLT will need to incorporate and assemble resources to sustain

it through a ﬁrst project. This typically starts with securing both operating

support and funding for the project, and hiring sta. The CLT will also

need to develop and implement a homebuyer selection and orientation

program. It is also essential for new CLTs to reach out to local lenders in

order to acquaint them with the CLT model so that they are ready to

provide mortgage ﬁnancing to a new CLT homebuyer.

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES

Moreover, municipal backing can be the signal that other stakeholders

need before they are willing to commit time and resources to the eort.

Experience has shown that strong municipal support for CLTs — both at

start-up and throughout operations — is critical to their long-term success.

Helpful roles that municipalities can

play in a CLT start-up include:

Introduce the Community to the Idea of a CLT. In some cities,

municipal sta have organized local forums and information sessions to

introduce people to the idea of a community land trust. It can be

particularly helpful to bring in experts and practitioners from other cities to

explain how the model works and the impact it has had on local conditions.

The city could even commission a report that identiﬁes and explores the

potential role of a CLT in the city, and the beneﬁts it might provide.

Convene Stakeholders. Municipalities can also support the formation

of a CLT by convening key stakeholders to explore the idea further. This can

be a particularly helpful role where a lack of resources or “turf wars” make it

dicult for any single community actor to be the lead convener. However,

the municipality must take care to be inclusive in whom it brings to the

table. A key group or individual “snubbed” from the invitation list can cause

rancor and distrust that makes it dicult to carry the CLT eort forward.

Participate in the Planning Process. Regardless of who initiates

discussions about a community land trust, one of the most valuable things

a municipality can do in bringing a CLT to fruition is to participate in the

planning process. In many cities, both elected ocials and municipal sta

have participated as key members of the planning team, contributing their

knowledge of local conditions, government programs, and funding sources

to the overall dialogue.

Sta the Start-Up. Municipal employees have sometimes served as

sta of a CLT during the start-up phase. Before a CLT is established, sta

might take the lead in convening meetings and doing the legwork to move

the CLT through the planning process, acting at the direction of a local

advisory committee or governing board. After a CLT is established,

municipal sta have sometimes served as de facto CLT sta, assuming

primary responsibility for day-to-day operations until the CLT has reached

sucient scale to sta itself.

Operate and Sustain

the Organization

Placing the ﬁrst unit in service is cause for celebration for any CLT.

However, it is also just the beginning of operating and sustaining a CLT for

the long term. Continued outreach and engagement are required to

ensure the CLT maintains its community connections and fulﬁlls its

community empowerment goals.

As the CLT adds more units, functions such as building and homebuyer

stewardship will likely become more central, and the organization’s stang

needs will grow. The organization’s business plan should provide a

roadmap to sustain the CLT’s operations through its ﬁrst three-to-ﬁve

years, subject to adjustments and guidance provided by the organization’s

board of directors and leadership sta.

What Role Can Municipalities

Play in Start-Up?

Municipalities do not typically start community land trusts without

signiﬁcant community leadership. Nonetheless, there is a lot that

municipalities can do to both initiate and support CLT organizing eorts.

Indeed, sometimes they need to be the ﬁrst actors in this space. The idea

of a CLT may be new to the community, “turf wars” or a lack of resources

may keep the relevant stakeholders from starting a new initiative, or other

actors may not have the same “view of the ﬁeld” that lets municipal actors

identify the particular need that a CLT could ﬁll in the local housing

ecosystem. Whatever the reason, a CLT may not come together in a

particular community if the initial support for it does not come from the

city government itself.

In other cases, the idea of a CLT may emerge from the community, but

require municipal support in order to move the idea forward and create

impact at scale. In this scenario as well, a lack of resources, competing

priorities, or understanding of the ﬁeld may hamper organizing eorts.

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES

The Municipal

Role in Sustaining

a Community

Land Trust

IRECT MUNICIPAL SUPPORT for the establishment and operation

of a community land trust is critical to its success. However,

direct support alone is not enough. It is also important that

municipalities structure their policies and practices in support of the CLT

mission to provide aordable housing for the long term.

Cities that are establishing or already have community land trusts should

also review their policies and practices with regard to public land

disposition, land banks, funding for aordable housing, and inclusionary

housing requirements and incentives.

Public Land Disposition Policies

Many cities hold quite a few surplus land parcels. These may be parcels

acquired through tax or other lien foreclosure, land that was donated to

the municipality by a developer, or land that was purchased but is no

longer needed for a public works project. Whatever the source,

municipalities are in the position to use this land to promote lasting

aordability in housing.

Hire Consultants and Other Experts. Particularly in the business

planning phase of start-up operations, the assistance of consultants with

deep knowledge of the operational and technical aspects of CLTs can be

invaluable. Municipalities can signiﬁcantly advance a CLT start-up eort by

contracting for expert assistance in this phase of operations.

Provide Start-Up Funding. It can take more than a year for a new

CLT to develop homeownership units, and even longer before it reaches

sucient scale to sustain its operations. Start-up funding from

municipalities can provide stability for the CLT during this critical phase.

Ensure a Project Pipeline. Particularly in the ﬁrst few years of

operations, it is important for CLTs to secure and complete a regular ﬂow

of homeownership projects. Municipalities can help CLTs achieve this goal

by prioritizing funding for projects that provide lasting aordability in

homeownership.

In addition to providing necessary support and resources, municipalities

can also foster the long-term success of community land trusts by making

adjustments to city policies and practices. We review these potential

changes in the next sections.

For more details, please see Appendix B: Additional Resources and

The City-CLT Partnership: Municipal Support for Community Land Trusts.

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES

Due to added costs and deeper aordability targeting, CLTs often cannot

oer as much for a piece of land as other aordable housing

organizations. Accordingly, even when a municipality prioritizes aordable

housing in the sale of publicly-owned land, CLTs may consistently lose out

to their peers in the industry who do not face similar constraints.

To support CLTs, municipal policies should speciﬁcally prioritize

purchase proposals that promise lasting aordability in the use of that

land when selling surplus property.

Discount land prices when selling to entities that

ensure that housing on the land remains aordable

in perpetuity

States vary signiﬁcantly as to how much freedom they accord to

municipalities to set the sales price of surplus property. Sometimes, cities

are constrained to oer property strictly at “fair market value.” Often,

however, they have leeway to oer a discounted price, or donate land

outright, when doing so advances a signiﬁcant public interest.

Providing aordable housing and ensuring that it remains aordable in

perpetuity is undoubtedly in the public interest. Indeed, CLTs take a one-

time investment in housing and ensure that it delivers aordability to the

community on the ﬁrst sale, on the next sale, and on every sale thereafter.

For other aordable housing providers, the aordability they provide may

serve only one household before it expires. Accordingly, CLTs arguably

advance the public interest more eectively than other entities that oer

only short terms of aordability.

In light of the long-term value that CLTs provide, as well as the higher

costs and deeper income targeting they often maintain, cities should

consider oering surplus land at a discounted price to community land

trusts and others that promise lasting terms of aordability, better

enabling these organizations to fulﬁll their public interest mission.

To do so, cities should consider adopting the following policies

and practices:

Establish a publicly accessible

inventory of surplus properties

Many cities simply do not know which properties they own, or whether the

parcels are needed for future use. Nonproﬁt housing organizations,

including community land trusts, may have an even harder time getting

this information. Cities can help housing organizations identify and make

plans for this property by inventorying the land the city holds, determining

whether the land is indeed “surplus” — that it is not needed for a municipal

project — and then making the list of surplus properties publicly available.

Prioritize lasting aordability in the

disposition of publicly-owned land

City policies typically specify the process to be followed when disposing

of city-owned land. Often, they give a priority to proposals that pledge to

use the property for aordable housing. This can be helpful, but for

municipalities intent on fostering the success of community land trusts, it

does not go far enough.

The problem is that CLTs can ﬁnd it dicult to compete with other

aordable housing organizations on price. In part, this is because they

often target home buyers at lower income levels (e.g. those earning up to

60 percent of area median income) than other aordable housing

organizations (which in many cases target buyers earning 80 percent to

120 percent of AMI). With deeper income targeting, CLTs must keep their

acquisition costs low, in order to pass the savings on to buyers.

CLTs also tend to oer a lower price for land than their peers in the

aordable housing industry because CLTs’ costs are higher. To fulﬁll their

commitment to lasting aordability, CLTs often incorporate longer-lasting

building components and more eective energy-eciency measures when

they build or rehabilitate homes. These expenses can drive up CLTs’

construction costs. CLTs also have ongoing costs in stewarding buyers and

homes through repeated sales of a property — costs that organizations

that do not commit to lasting aordability do not have.

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES

IN PRACTICE

Albany, NY, provides a useful example of

collaboration between a CLT and a land bank. The

Albany County Land Bank worked with the Albany

Community Land Trust to establish the “Inclusive

Neighborhoods Program,” which gives the Albany

CLT a “ﬁrst look” at properties that come into the

land bank’s inventory that are located in moderate-

to-stronger market areas of the City of Albany.

If the CLT is interested in the properties, it may

acquire them at a discount, rehabilitate the

properties if necessary, and return them to the

market as permanently aordable housing. This

program represents a signiﬁcant commitment

by the land bank to forgo a portion of the

potential income from the sale of the property

in order to promote inclusive neighborhoods

and lasting aordability in Albany.

Land Banks

Municipalities can also support community land trusts by establishing

land banks (where they don’t currently exist) and using them to provide

a pipeline of property for CLTs. Land banks are typically nonproﬁt or

public authorities that focus on the conversion of vacant and deteriorating

properties to productive use. They most commonly acquire properties

through the property tax foreclosure system, but may purchase property

or receive donations of land as well. State enabling legislation typically

grants land banks special powers such as the ability to remove liens for

delinquent property taxes and to resolve problems in the chain of title to

the property. These powers enable land banks to return the property to

productive use without the legal and ﬁnancial barriers that might

otherwise make the properties unattractive to the private market.

Land banks and CLTs can play complementary roles in dierent markets

across cities. Land banks tend to be most active in “weak” market areas,

where vacancy and abandonment are particularly common. In these

neighborhoods, land banks can work with CLTs to rehabilitate homes and

revitalize the area, while protecting neighborhood aordability for when

the market once again heats up. Land banks also sometimes acquire

property in stronger market areas of a city. By prioritizing these properties

for acquisition by a CLT, cities can make amenity-rich neighborhoods more

accessible and aordable for the long term.

Land Banks

Nonproﬁt or public

authorities that focus on

the conversion of vacant

and deteriorating properties

to productive use, such as

for aordable housing

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES

IN PRACTICE

Baltimore, MD, has earmarked about a quarter

to a third of the more than $15 million of annual

funding it contributes to its Aordable Housing

Trust Fund for CLT projects. Similarly, Highland Park,

IL, expressly prioritizes funding for its local CLT

and other organizations that provide long terms of

aordability in its housing trust fund allocations.

Seattle, WA, takes a somewhat dierent approach:

It raises aordable housing funds through a

housing levy. All projects that receive funding

from the levy must commit to maintaining their

aordability for at least 50 years. Thus, while

Seattle does not expressly prioritize funding for

CLTs, it requires lengthy terms of aordability

for all projects, ensuring that CLTs compete on

a level playing ﬁeld with other developers.

Funding for Aordable Housing

Cities can also support CLTs by prioritizing lasting aordability in the

allocation of aordable housing subsidy dollars.

Most cities provide subsidy dollars for the development of aordable

housing. This funding typically comes from federal programs administered

by local governments, such as the HOME Investment Partnership program

and the Community Development Block Grant program. Local

governments also may provide locally-generated funds, whether through

budget allocations of general revenue funds, or through designated

sources such as voter-approved housing bonds or fees on real estate

transactions. Often these locally-generated funds are administered

through an aordable housing trust fund — a distinct fund established

to provide a reliable and dedicated stream of funding for the production

and preservation of aordable housing.

Whatever the source, subsidies and incentives that local governments

provide should be appropriately scaled to the public beneﬁt they secure.

CLTs arguably provide greater public beneﬁt than other programs that

provide shorter terms of aordability, so accordingly, cities should

consider providing larger subsidies for CLTs and others that provide

permanently aordable housing.

Cities should also consider prioritizing allocations for such entities.

Prioritization can take the form of direct requirements imposed on all

funding applicants, point-based incentives that would give CLTs a

competitive advantage in the allocation of funding, or set-asides that

would ensure that some funding for lasting aordability is always available.

Aordable Housing

Trust Fund

A distinct fund of locally-

generated budget dollars

that are earmarked

and administered to

provide a reliable and

dedicated stream of

funding for the production

and preservation of

aordable housing

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES

IN PRACTICE

Chapel Hill, NC, provides an excellent example

of the synergies created between an inclusionary

housing program and a community land trust. The

town’s ordinance requires developers to provide

units with lasting aordability and encourages

private developers to work with Community Home

Trust, the local CLT, to produce their aordable

units. The private developers build the units and

sell them to the CLT at an aordable price. The CLT

then takes on the responsibility for ﬁnding eligible

buyers and sells the homes to income-eligible

buyers, subject to 99-year resale restrictions.

This approach enables the CLT to preserve the

home’s aordability over time, while freeing

the town and the developers from this ongoing

administrative burden. The market-rate developers

pay the CLT a marketing fee, the local governments

provide limited operating funding, and homeowners

pay a monthly fee that supports the organization’s

ongoing administration and monitoring costs.

Inclusionary Housing Policies

Requiring lasting terms of aordability in inclusionary housing policies is

another way that cities can foster the success of community land trusts.

Inclusionary housing programs are local policies that tap the

economic gains from rising real estate values to create aordable housing

for lower-income families.

An inclusionary housing program might

require developers to sell or rent 10 to 30 percent of new residential units

to lower-income residents. Many, but not all, programs partially oset the

cost of providing aordable units by oering developers one or more

incentives such as tax abatements, parking reductions, or the right to

build at higher densities. Most programs recognize that it’s not always

feasible to include aordable on-site units within market-rate projects, in

which case developers may be able to choose among alternatives such as

payment of an in-lieu fee or provision of aordable o-site units in

another project.

When inclusionary housing programs require or incentivize lasting terms

of aordability for the units provided under the program, they create a

natural niche for CLTs to ﬁll. For-proﬁt developers are often unprepared

to ﬁnd income-qualiﬁed buyers, monitor and enforce aordability

requirements for decades to come, and otherwise steward owners and

properties for the long term. In such cases, they can sell the units to a CLT

at a price aordable to the CLT’s target homebuyers, and the CLT will

then resell the home (but not the land) to those buyers. The CLT then

relieves the developer of any long-term monitoring or support

responsibilities.

Inclusionary

Housing Programs

Policies that require or

encourage new residential

developments to make

a portion of the housing

units aordable to low-

or moderate-income

residents, often in

exchange for cost osets

such as tax abatements,

parking reductions or

density bonuses

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES

formulas will help stabilize CLT homeowners

for the duration of their time in the home.

Additionally, where applicable, homestead

property tax exemptions can help reduce tax

burdens by providing CLT homeowners

opportunity to reduce their property tax bill by

completing an annual application process.

In jurisdictions where exemption or relief are

unattainable, CLTs may explore private funding

sources that can be used to o-set associated

ownership costs in support of securing long-

term aordability.

Eliminating Administrative Barriers.

Cities can also work toward ensuring lasting

aordability by minimizing administrative

barriers that unnecessarily prolong the real

estate development process. Cumbersome

processes that require multiple reviews and a

string of city-level approvals not only extend the

development timeline, which could increase

development costs, but may ultimately

discourage development all together for smaller

projects that carry thin ﬁnancial margins.

Lengthy development timelines that are a result

of ineciencies in administrative processes may

decrease the ﬁnancial feasibility of projects due

to a developer’s responsibility of meeting

ongoing carrying costs. Requiring periodic

reviews of development processes provides

opportunity to eliminate steps that are

outmoded or those that no longer serve the

interests of the city or developer.

Additionally, proper oversight of variances in

city approval time by property class,

neighborhood, or zoning type will assist cities in

ensuring that administrative procedures do not

inadvertently discourage the production or

preservation of aordable homes. Cities can

safeguard against variances and

inconsistencies in administrative processes by

creating standardized review processes and

timelines that are used for CLT projects.

And where permissible, CLTs may receive

additional pre-development support through

the exemption of state or local taxes

associated with the construction phase of the

project. Receiving an automatic sales tax

exemption for building materials, or similar

development incentives, could assist CLTs in

decreasing project costs and ultimately pass

these savings along to the homeowner.

Ongoing Support & Resource

Contribution. Creating lasting aordability

requires intentional policy creation and long-

term planning to ensure that aordable units are

permanently retained within a city’s aordable

housing stock. By leveraging available city-

owned assets through land banks or prioritizing

fund disbursement through housing trust funds,

municipalities can secure lasting aordability for

their community. Similarly, cities can employ

federal funds by executing strategies that

ensure aordable units do not exist on a

revolving door, but are maintained and secured

through CLTs for generations to come.

The strategic alignment of resources,

stakeholders, assets, and goals can provide

momentum in achieving housing justice goals

through productive CLTs. Creating and

Guaranteeing Permanent

Aordability

To guarantee lasting aordability for CLT

homeowners, proper attention needs to be

given to CLT properties and how they are

established, assessed, and retained within a

locality’s aordable housing stock.

Equitable Property Tax Relief. There is

much debate on the proper taxation structure

for CLT properties, as there is tension in

ensuring that property tax costs do not create

an added cost burden to homeowners, while

also acknowledging that CLT property owners

enjoy and use many of the public services (e.g.

schools, streets, parks) that are supported

through the collection of property taxes. The

use of restrictive property tax assessment

models can support CLTs in retaining long-term

aordability, without requiring a total property

tax exemption for their homeowners.

While each CLT’s optimal method of assessment

will likely be dependent on, and constrained by,

state regulations, a focus on relief strategies that

are concentrated on either the land or physical

dwelling have demonstrated promise in

minimizing tax cost-burdens for CLT

homeowners.

Basing the assessed property value on pre-

determined resale formulas or income-based

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES

Conclusion

ASKED WITH ENSURING stable and safe housing for residents,

cities, towns and villages of all sizes are perpetually weighing

community needs against available resources. In many cases this

balancing act yields a policy landscape that furthers a revolving door of

aordability, with new units constructed largely through incentives to

replace units phasing out of aordability. As a result, few cities are able to

see the light at the end of the aordability tunnel.

With the commitment that units will remain aordable in perpetuity,

community land trusts stand to help cities meet a housing need that is

unlikely to ever disappear. At a regional or city scale, CLTs enable

communities to weather economic downturns more eectively, while

resisting the widespread processes of gentriﬁcation and displacement.

And with the potential to facilitate homeownership and the corresponding

opportunity for wealth building, CLTs are positioned to be a powerful tool

for racial equity by closing the otherwise almost unfathomable

aordability gap for households that are low-income, Black, Indigenous or

People of Color.

As cities look to recover from COVID-19, there is a prime opportunity to

rebuild more equitably than before. Community land trusts, when

managed with both community and municipal support, have the potential

to eciently, justly, and eectively address the longstanding aordable

housing needs that many cities have faced for decades.

preserving safe, quality housing that is truly aordable should ultimately

become a community-wide endeavor, and cities can promote this

approach by establishing partnerships that are aligned through vision and

individual action. Cities can solidify this process through the creation of

comprehensive housing plans that are developed with community buy-in

and are intentional in creating equitable land use practices that promote a

high-quality of life for all residents.

Monitoring & Enforcement. Lastly, privately managed projects that

contain aordable units, such as those created through inclusionary

housing or CLTs, should be required to follow city-developed

administrative guidelines that ensure fairness and equity within the

resident selection process.

To enforce these guidelines, some programs have erected penalties and

fees for projects that are continually non-compliant.

Cities can also enact

local compliance measures to monitor CLT adherence to fair housing

requirements.

Developing a reporting system to monitor claims against CLTs will assist

cities in proactively creating safeguards against actions or behaviors that

can decrease one’s quality of life. Ensuring aordability through CLTs is a

continual process that requires intentionality, monitoring and enforcement,

but will help cities maintain a high-quality of life for all residents for years

to come.

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES

Through its connection with Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, DNI

supports tenants and homeowners with regular workshops on topics such

as home maintenance and repair, reﬁnancing, ﬁnancial planning, taxes and

residential tax exemption, and has worked with local banks and ﬁnancial

institutions to develop mortgage oerings that are consistent with the CLT

model. Purchasers are also required to take at least two, 2-hour trainings

about the land trust and ground lease structures.

Since its establishment more than 35 years ago, Dudley Neighbors, Inc.

has contributed to the development of 227 units of aordable housing,

including 95 permanently aordable homes, 77 cooperative housing units

and 53 rental units. With a focus on maintaining deeply aordable

housing, half of all DNI homeowners earn roughly $20,000 to $40,000

each year and 80 percent of all families earn less than $70,000 annually.

The land trust is also now home to a community greenhouse and urban

farm, a playground, gardens, and oce space for local nonproﬁts.

Additional commercial space is also being development, all with

community needs in mind.

What are the goals of the program?

Dudley Neighbors, Inc. serves as the community land trust arm of the

Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) and is tasked with

implementing local-level revitalization plans created by the community

itself. These eorts zero in on the important goal of “development without

displacement,” and aim to create, preserve and maintain space for a

diverse community. By facilitating aordable housing, economic

development and the establishment of open spaces and other amenities,

DNI and the Neighborhood Initiative seek to empower residents of

Boston’s Roxbury and North Dorchester neighborhoods.

Who are the partners?

Dudley Neighbors, Inc. was created through the Dudley Street

Neighborhood Initiative and coordinates closely with the City of Boston,

particularly the Department of Neighborhood Development, to exercise its

eminent domain authority. It has also established partnerships with local

community initiatives such as the Urban Farming Institute and The Food

Project for the maintenance of the CLT’s urban greenspaces, along with

Boston’s Coalition for Occupied Homes in Foreclosure and the Chinese

Appendices

Appendix A:

CLT Examples from Around the Country

Boston, MA

DUDLEY NEIGHBORS, INCORPORATED

What are the program details?

Dudley Neighbors, Inc. (DNI) was created in 1984 as a response to

community and resident concerns about a swath of underutilized spaces

in an area facing rapid disinvestment. Established as a community land

trust and an urban redevelopment corporation (Massachusetts 121A

Corporation), DNI was granted the eminent domain authority it needed to

acquire privately-owned, vacant land in the area known as the “Dudley

Triangle.” Equipped with a comprehensive development plan drafted by

the community, DNI began to pursue its vision for revitalization.

With control over more than 30 acres of land, DNI helps to preserve and

facilitate the construction of aordable housing by leasing land parcels to

both private and nonproﬁt developers. Individual homeowners are then

oered 99-year leases for a monthly fee while being able to apply for a

mortgage for just the value of the home, and DNI maintains a long-term

stewardship over the land itself.

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES

Atlanta, GA

ATLANTA LAND TRUST

What are the program details?

The Atlanta Land Trust (ALT) creates and preserves permanently

aordable housing in the booming area of the Atlanta Beltline by

implementing a community land trust model at scale and providing

stewardship over owner-occupied homes.

The CLT initiative complements the equity goals of the urban

redevelopment program currently underway at the Beltline, which is a

former railway that encircles the city of Atlanta, Georgia. Launched in

2009 as a true public-private partnership by a group of more than 30

public, private, nonproﬁt and community organizations, ALT bolsters

aordably in a rapidly developing area and enables low-and middle-

income residents (at or below 80 percent AMI) to build wealth through

homeownership.

In close partnership with the City of Atlanta and its designated Land Bank

Authority, ALT has secured its portfolio from corporate donors by oering

tax deductions, through partnerships with nonproﬁts and community

development corporations, and with standard purchasing agreements.

Operating on 99-year leases, ALT homeowners are buered from shocks

in the housing market while the Land Trust is able to preserve public

investment in a stock of aordable homes.

When a homeowner ultimately decides to sell, the resale value is set to

maintain aordability for the incoming owner: Most homes can be sold at

a price that allows owners to realize 25 percent of the appreciated value of

their home, while prices for other properties in speciﬁc neighborhoods are

set based on a formula using average income growth to determine the

amount of equity that a homeowner can realize. ALT has a portfolio of

Progressive Association. The trust partners with national groups that

include Grounded Solutions Network, the Trust for Public Land and the

Ford Foundation.

How is the program funded?

This Boston-based community land trust operates with the support of the

city government but relies on ﬁnancial contributions from national

partners such as the Ford Foundation, as well as on leasing agreements it

has with developers. Additionally, DNI’s status as a community

development corporation enables it to leverage $150,000 in tax credits for

the 2019-2020 ﬁscal year through the Community Investment Tax Credit

(CITC) program signed into law at the state level. By oering a 50 percent

state tax credit on donations of $1,000 or more, DNI is positioned to

secure $300,000 in funding that can be used programmatically, though

not for development.

What else should city leaders know?

Homeowners and city ocials are not the only key audiences

for community land trusts looking to establish themselves —

working with banks and ﬁnancial institutions was a signiﬁcant

step in the early days of DNI. Many lenders are not yet ﬂuent

in the land trust or shared equity models, which can pose a

signiﬁcant hurdle for potential homeowners looking to ﬁnance

their new home.

Dudley Neighbors, Inc. engaged and worked alongside banks

to ﬁnetune the process of underwriting loans that account for

just the value of a home, not including the value of the land

beneath it. By partnering with local banks and through

education eorts at Banker Forums, DNI has supported the

development mortgage oerings speciﬁcally accounting for

the CLT model with several local ﬁnancing institutions.

Learn more at dudleyneighbors.org

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES

since received support from a range of corporate and philanthropic

partners, including the Ford Foundation, Wells Fargo, SPARCC, The

Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, Enterprise Community

Partners and Transformation Alliance. In December 2017, ALT received a

multi-year $1 million grant from The Kendeda Fund, which has been key to

continuing the organization’s growth. Finally, ALT was named as a Bank of

America Neighborhood Builders awardee in 2019 and is the recipient of a

$200,000 grant.

What else should city leaders know?

For many communities, housing is simultaneously an area of

high-need, and a crowded policy space. With numerous policy

levers available and countless advocacy organizations,

nonproﬁt implementors, philanthropic entities, and corporate

partners all pursuing speciﬁc initiatives, it can be critical to

ﬁnd alignment and identify shared goals. In the case of ALT,

recognition of how the revitalization of the Atlanta BeltLine

would impact the community as a whole spurred the need for

additional focus on maintaining a stock of aordable housing.

And as Atlanta Mayor Bottoms rolled out her vision for a

pathway to aordable and equitable housing opportunities,

the One Atlanta: Housing Aordability Action Plan, ALT has

become a central component.

Amidst coordinating with the local land bank to create a

pipeline of land for development, ALT is also working with city

leaders to secure a partial property tax homestead exemption

for CLT homeowners. When it comes to housing, having “too

many cooks in the kitchen” can be a great thing, particularly

when they are all following a similar recipe.

Learn more at atlantalandtrust.org

roughly 20 homes and has a pipeline of more than 200 units, with others

currently on the market.

As Atlanta continues to expand, the CLT is well-positioned to help foster

inclusive growth for the city’s highly diverse population. With support

from the City, ALT has been identiﬁed as a mechanism for equity and is

highlighted in the newly released city-wide housing plan, One Atlanta:

Housing Aordability Action Plan. Additionally, its board — comprised of

neighborhood community members, city representatives and nonproﬁt

partners — is pursuing property tax cuts as an added beneﬁt for owners.

What are the goals of the program?

The Atlanta Land Trust (ALT) was established in an eort to help maintain

aordability in areas at risk of gentriﬁcation and displacement in

anticipation of development sparked by the Atlanta BeltLine Project. It is

also coordinating closely with the City of Atlanta and the Atlanta/Fulton

County Land Bank to align their eorts and meet the needs of a diverse

community. By serving in a stewardship role through its community land

trust model, ALT aims to create and preserve permanently aordable

housing, while directly addressing disparities through equitable growth

and wealth-building through homeownership.

Who are the partners?

With backing from the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership, Georgia ACT

(formerly the Atlanta Housing Association of Neighborhood-based

Developers) and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Atlanta Land Trust

was created by a group of more than 30 public, private, nonproﬁt and

community organizations. In its establishment, ALT’s founding coalition

received technical assistance from Burlington Associates in Community

Development, LLC around the implementation of a community land trust

model. The trust coordinates closely with the City of Atlanta and the

Fulton County/City of Atlanta Land Bank Authority in pursuit of the

shared goal of providing equitable, aordable housing.

How is the program funded?

The Atlanta Land Trust was jumpstarted by funding from Home Depot,

NCB Capital and the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta, and continues to

be largely supported by private and philanthropic funds. The Trust has

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES

HCLT also established the Homebuyer Choice Program in 2021 which

provides up to $150,000 toward a home purchase for qualiﬁed buyers

under 80 percent of AMI. There have been 18 buyers under that program

so far, with a goal of 150 new buyers by June 30th, 2022.

Although the development of homes and the availability of subsidies have

been signiﬁcantly impacted by Hurricane Harvey, HCLT has continued

rigorous outreach and education eorts within the Houston community to

stimulate demand.

What are the goals of the program?

By setting aside permanently aordable housing for low-income Houston

residents, HCLT aims to prevent gentriﬁcation, maintain housing quality and

support families in the community. The Land Trust serves a key role in the

city’s housing plan and aims to expand its stock of housing to more than

1,000 homes by 2028. In a move to broaden its impact by harnessing the

existing housing market, HCLT is also preparing to launch its Homebuyer

Choice Program in partnership with the city as an initiative to help

homebuyers purchase homes through the Trust anywhere in the city.

By tapping into properties already on the market, HCLT aims to meet the

high level of demand in areas outside where the Land Bank and the New

Home Development Program currently operate. As Houston’s real estate

market and city limits continue to expand, these homes and unique buying

options will help to preserve access and opportunities for some of the

area’s low-income residents, making homeownership a real possibility.

Who are the partners?

Although it functions as an independent nonproﬁt, the Houston

Community Land Trust has a close relationship with both the Houston

Land Bank and the City of Houston. With no plans to build homes directly

in the future, HCLT is transferred the land lease by the local Land Bank

after it facilitates the sale of homes constructed through the New Home

Development Program operated by the City’s Housing and Community

Development Department.

Houston, TX

HOUSTON COMMUNITY LAND TRUST

What are the program details?

Established in 2018, the Houston Community Land Trust (HCLT) focuses

its eorts on making homeownership achievable for low-income residents

as housing prices and property taxes have soared, and as the city recovers

in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. Operating in a city without zoning laws,

HCLT secures interest from low-income households and helps prospective

homeowners navigate an otherwise sprawling housing market while

ensuring long-term aordability for each home.

Working in lockstep with the City of Houston’s Housing and Community

Development Department (HCDD) and the Houston Land Bank (HLB), the

Houston Community Land Trust helps to match low-income, prospective

homebuyers with properties developed through the city’s New Home

Development Program (NHDP). Using land designated by the Land Bank,

the city manages the building of homes that are subsequently turned over

to the Land Bank for a market-rate sale to households at or below 80

percent AMI.

With the house on the market, the Houston Community Land Trust works

to identify buyers who would be interested in purchasing the home

through the Land Trust at a subsidized price. For a home that would

otherwise be traditionally sold by the Land Bank for between $150,000

and $180,000, HCLT is able to facilitate a sale for approximately $75,000,

and the deed to the land is transferred to HCLT for stewardship on the

basis of a 99-year lease and a small monthly fee. New homeowners agree

to limit the resale price of their home to a growth of 1.25 percent annually

in order to ensure that it remains aordable for the next residents. Since

the initiative began, all 42 of the homes built through the New Home

Development Program have sold, 29 of which were through the HCLT

while the remaining 13 sold by traditional purchase.

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New Orleans, LA

CRESCENT CITY COMMUNITY LAND TRUST

What are the program details?

In a city that needs more than 33,000 aordable housing units by 2025,

Crescent City Community Land Trust (CCCLT) is working to provide

permanently aordable homes, rental units and commercial spaces to

individuals who are most as-risk for displacement. While many original

residents — particularly low-income people of color — began to be priced

out of New Orleans as it underwent recovery, revitalization and

reinvestment, community members came together to establish CCCLT

with the primary purpose of combatting the city’s history of discriminatory

housing practices. With a focus on preserving permanently aordable

homes in areas of access and opportunity by leveraging a land trust and

stewardship model, CCCLT sold its ﬁrst home in November 2019. CCCLT

successfully closed on four single family CLT homes in 2020 and continues

to grow its pipeline.

All of the housing developed by Crescent City Community Land Trust is

tailored to meet the needs of some of the community’s most at-risk

residents: Roughly half of the units (50 – 67 percent) will be permanently

aordable for people earning 50 – 80 percent average median income,

with the remaining units kept accessible for people at 120 – 200 percent

AMI. Homes are priced between $33,000 and $90,000, with monthly

payments capped at 25 percent of the owner’s income.

Crescent City Community Land Trust has also expanded on typical land

trust practices by committing to the development and preservation of

rental units and commercial spaces that will allow local nonproﬁts and

How is the program funded?

The Houston Community Land Trust received $1 million from the City of

Houston for start-up costs and was awarded an additional $1 million in

operational funds in February 2020. Although HCLT does not receive

additional funds directly, the City of Houston has provided approximately

$1.25 million in subsidized funding to-date in order to facilitate the sale of

Land Bank homes for more deeply aordable prices through HCLT. The

organization is also partially supported by small ground lease fees and

sale fees for each home, as well as by a technical assistance grant from

Wells Fargo and Grounded Solutions Network. As HCLT continues to

expand its portfolio, it plans to roll out a fundraising strategy and

aggressively pursue additional grant funding.

What else should city leaders know?

Even with strong support from Houston local elected leaders,

getting people into new homes has proven to be a long, slow

process. The ﬁrst hurdle? Getting those homes built. The

second hurdle? Building trust through engagement within a

community for whom the CLT ownership model may be

completely unfamiliar.

The solutions thus far include setting a clear target for who

the properties should be made aordable to, and

implementing outreach and funding models that makes sense

for that group. That planning process should also include

examining external factors, such as ensuring housing security

and wealthy building through homeownership for those

earning between 50 and 80 percent of area median income

and still having enough left over to pay ever-increasing

property taxes. Therefore, working with the local tax district

to develop an aordable tax agreement that accounts for the

land trust system of ownership is essential.

Learn more at houstonclt.org

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How is the program funded?

Crescent City Community Land Trust received a $1.5 million loan from the

Ford Foundation, which signiﬁcantly subsidizes the selling prices of homes

and units. Capital One and Home Bank are also project partners and

ﬁnanciers. The initiative has received support from the Catholic Campaign

for Human Development and a range of philanthropic entities, including

the Foundation for Louisiana, the Greater New Orleans Foundation,

JPMorgan Chase Foundation, and W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Much of this

grant-based funding is invested through the Crescent City Capital Fund, a

capital and loan pool that is administered by Capital Impact Partners, a

national community development ﬁnancial institution. This will be

complemented by CCCLT’s goal of growing a $5 million equity fund.

What else should city leaders know?

Despite its successes and plans for strategic growth, Crescent

City Community Land Trust still faces signiﬁcant hurdles to

establishing a foothold in the New Orleans development ﬁeld

— not least of which is earning trust and understanding from

the community and city. Particularly in a rapidly gentrifying

area, the Trust seeks to clarify its role in the housing market

and carve out a place for itself in preventing displacement —

not hindering recovery or economic growth. CCCLT is tackling

this challenge with rigorous community outreach, education

eorts, and by forging local partnerships that lend legitimacy

to its work. The other half of the battle takes place in City Hall,

where support for policies furthering the mission of long-term

and permanent aordability more broadly could be

transformative for the organization.

Learn more at ccclt.org

small businesses to operate in commercially viable areas. Notably, CCCLT

has partial ownership over a historic, mixed-use building in downtown

New Orleans, which has contributed 25 aordable rental units to CCCLT’s

stewardship portfolio. Crescent City Community Land Trust is directly

tackling the preservation problem that hinders so many other aordable

housing initiatives with its strong foundation and growing portfolio of

homes, rentals, and spaces for low-income or entrepreneurs of color.

What are the goals of the program?

By implementing a community land trust model, Crescent City Community

Land Trust looks to ensure equitable residential and commercial

development and safeguard permanent aordability for community

members most at-risk of displacement. The program prioritizes housing in

opportunity areas where residents have good access to jobs, schools and

businesses. By 2024, CCCLT aims to have leveraged the development of

200 units of long-term and permanently aordable housing, developed

50,000 square feet of aordable commercial space, and to have engaged

in land banking and acquired 30,000 square feet of land for the portfolio.

With these goals in mind, the organization is committing to advocating for

policies that establish longer aordability periods, and to substantially

grow an equity fund that will sustain its work for generations to come.

Who are the partners?

Crescent City Community Land Trust operates with the support of a host

of nonproﬁt partners and funders, including a signiﬁcant investment from

the Ford Foundation. CCCLT has also established partnerships with

qualiﬁed lenders, Home Bank and Hope Credit Lenders, as well as a selling

agent for its properties, Home by Hand. On an initiative-basis, CCCLT has

a partnership with the Ashé Cultural Arts Center and is pursuing the

development of aordable live/workspaces for local artists. The trust

works in partnership with a range of real estate, business development,

and policy partners, CLTs, and neighborhood organizations.

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percent AMI into homeownership, including having facilitated the resale of

more than 90 homes.

In addition to its homeownership program, City of Lakes Community Land

Trust is in the early stages of initiating a Commercial Community Land

Trust to provide local businesses with aordable opportunities for

commercial properties. Following the same 99-year ground lease and

resale formula model, the Commercial CLT aims to stabilize rents for small

and legacy businesses.

What are the goals of the program?

With a focus on those facing a recent ﬁnancial shock or hurdle, the City of

Lakes Community Land Trust aims to make homeownership accessible for

low- and moderate-income Minneapolis families. Moving forward, CLCLT

aims to expand aordable homeownership opportunities for even lower

AMI households. It is also looking to help take on racial disparities in the

city’s homeownership rates by deepening gap ﬁnancing options,

particularly to engage Black and Native American community members.

Additionally, the CLT hopes to grow its commercial portfolio and oer

stability to an increasing number of minority-owned businesses.

Who are the partners?

The City of Lakes Community Land Trust began as a result of a

collaboration between local neighborhood groups, including Powderhorn

Residents Group, Seward Redesign, Powderhorn Park Neighborhood

Association and the Lyndale Neighborhood Development Corporation,

which engaged an outside partner to consult on the feasibility of the

Commercial CLT model.

Though City of Lakes CLT often identiﬁes and acquires new properties

independently, it works in tandem with Land Bank Twin Cities for certain

acquisitions. Historically, the organization also began working closely with

the City of Minneapolis to facilitate the deployment of HUD Neighborhood

Stabilization Program funds, often to cover the cost of deferred

maintenance on homes coming out of foreclosure. CLCLT continues to

partner with the city, which has frequently demonstrated preference for

long-term aordability in the sale of land, to align on citywide long-term

and permanent aordability policies and priorities.

Minneapolis, MN

CITY OF LAKES CLT

What are the program details?

Facing growing concerns around rising costs of housing in the Minneapolis

area, the City of Lakes Community Land Trust (CLCLT) was established in

2002 after a working group of neighborhood associations identiﬁed the

CLT model as an intervention to help city residents ﬁnd stability through

homeownership. With the goal of fostering “perpetual aordability” of

homeownership, CLCLT looks to tackle housing equity in a city with one of

the largest racial disparities in homeownership rates nationwide.

Operating on the basis of 99-year, renewable ground leases, CLCLT oers

two distinct paths to homeownership: 1) It partners with builders and

developers to create new homes on trust land and sell them at below-

market prices, or 2) it can help families and individuals buy and renovate

existing homes that meet their needs.

Under the umbrella of its Homebuyer Initiated Program (HIP), CLCLT

oers homebuyers gap ﬁnancing solutions generally totaling

approximately $50,000 per household to assist them in aording and

responsibly purchasing their home: CLCLT’s Aordability Investment

Grants reduce the amount of mortgage ﬁnancing needed to purchase a

home, while Rehab Grants can be used to cover the costs of necessary

home repairs, ensuring that expensive renovations such as replacing a roof

or lead abatement will not threaten the ﬁnancial stability of new

homeowners.

When an owner decides to sell their home, CLCLT’s resale formula caps

the price in order to preserve aordability while also allowing the owner to

beneﬁt from 25 percent of the increase in value. In total, CLCLT has

assisted 400 households with an average income of approximately 51

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What else should city leaders know?

One key to the City of Lakes CLT’s success has been its

commitment to deeply understanding and meeting the needs

of the community itself, and fulﬁlling any promises made to

that community or their partners. It’s advice to organizations

or cities considering implementing a similar model? Don’t

simply dabble in shared equity — if you’re going to do it,

commit to doing it well and to funding the initiative in a way

that will outlast political and economic shifts.

Sustained ﬁnancial support from all levels of state and local

government has been central to CLCLT’s impact, and earning

buy-in on shared equity and institutional commitment to

long-term aordability has provided a signiﬁcant boost.

However, having strong engagement and established

relationships with members of the city sta — not just having

vocal support from city leaders themselves — would be

beneﬁcial to similar community land trust initiatives in the

early stages of development.

Learn more at clclt.org

How is the program funded?

Along with ground lease and membership fees, CLCLT receives funding

from a mix of private or philanthropic grants, neighborhood support, and

public investment by the City of Minneapolis, Hennepin County and the

State of Minnesota. Public sector, private sector, and neighborhood funds

largely go toward homes or ﬁnancing solutions for households, while

philanthropic grants generally support organizational or programmatic

initiatives.

Through several rounds of funding, Minnesota’s Metropolitan Council has

provided signiﬁcant ﬁnancial support to CLCLT’s Homebuyer Initiated

Program through the city’s Metropolitan Livable Communities Local

Housing Incentives Program in particular. Additionally, CLCLT began to

explore the feasibility of launching its Commercial CLT model in 2017 with

funding from the Jay and Rose Phillips Foundation of Minnesota.

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that provide residents with increased access to health care, healthy food,

early childhood education, workforce training and placement, and wealth

building opportunities.

What are the goals of the program?

Elevation CLT’s goals are two-fold: First, Elevation CLT’s target is to

acquire or develop 1,100 permanently aordable units within its ﬁrst seven

years of operation, while also becoming ﬁnancially self-sucient. Second,

Elevation CLT aims to disrupt the generational black-white wealth gap,

de-commodify housing, anchor families of color in their communities, help

stop foreclosures, and mitigate the impacts of gentriﬁcation and

displacement. To realize these goals, Elevation CLT prioritizes engagement

and outreach to community members to spread the word and increase the

rate of homeownership in low-income families and families of color.

Who are the partners?

Elevation CLT was created in partnership between the philanthropic

community, public sector, private developers, and community-based

organizations. The Urban Land Conservancy continues to provide

technical assistance to Elevation CLT during its startup phase. Additionally,

one of Elevation CLT’s biggest partners are municipal governments.

In May 2019, Elevation CLT and the City of Aurora partnered to create

permanently aordable homeownership opportunities over ﬁve years for

at least 50 Aurora families living at or below 80 percent AMI. MOUs signed

between municipal partners and Elevation CLT allows Elevation CLT to

acquire and remodel a mix of single-family homes, condominiums, and

townhomes that can be purchased by qualifying residents. Elevation CLT

also works closely with community members through their stewardship

team, by attending community events such as block parties and

conducting library visits in order to educate and advocate about the

beneﬁts of CLTs and bolster the legitimacy of the organization.

How is the program funded?

Established as a public-private partnership, Elevation CLT was initially

funded by $24 million seed dollars raised by seven philanthropic

organizations in Colorado, including the Colorado Health Foundation,

Bohemian Foundation, the Denver Foundation, Gates Family Foundation,

Denver, CO

ELEVATION COMMUNITY LAND TRUST

What are the program details?

Established in 2017 in response to the lack of aordable homeownership

options for low-income families in Colorado, Elevation CLT operates in

cities across Colorado, employing a “scattered site model,” which has the

ﬂexibility to scale to any community across the state at risk of

gentriﬁcation and displacement.

Elevation CLT is on track to develop 1,100 units within seven years of

operation in cities across Colorado through the purchase of existing units

such as single-family homes, multi-family homes and apartment

complexes, and through the construction of new units in partnership with

municipal governments and developers. The organization is either

pursuing or is currently partnered with Arvada, Aurora, Boulder County,

Brighton, Commerce City, Denver, Fort Collins, Longmont and Westminster

— municipal partners who are critical in supporting Elevation CLT’s

acquisition of homes and new construction. While focused on family-

friendly housing types such as single-family homes, Elevation CLT is also

open to creative pathways, in partnership with municipalities and

developers, to secure family-friendly housing in a range of neighborhoods.

Presently, Elevation CLT is piloting modular housing in Aurora, CO and

constructing a 92-unit condo in Denver, CO.

In addition to providing access to aordable homeownership, Elevation

CLT stewards prospective buyers through the purchasing process with

pre-purchase counselling, a CLT orientation and mortgage facilitation.

Elevation CLT also provides ongoing support during ownership of homes

by oering resident stewardship ﬁnancial counseling and mediation with

banks if a homeowner falls into ﬁnancial hardship. The organization aims

to ultimately align itself with comprehensive supportive service programs

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Appendix B: Additional Resources

Grounded Solutions Network has a wealth of resources available on its

website for even more detailed information about many of the topics covered

in this report. Topics inclue:

Aordable Pricing and Resale Formulas

Balancing Wealth Creation and Lasting Aordability

CLTs and Community Empowerment

CLTs and Foreclosure

CLTs and Limited-Equity Housing Cooperatives

CLTs and Rental Housing

Inclusionary Housing Programs

CLTs and Land Banks

Model Ground Leases

Municipal Support for CLTs

Racial Equity

Starting a CLT

Stewardship Practices

The Community Land Trust Model and Movement

Grounded Solutions Network oers a variety of webinars and training courses

about many of the topics listed above. Its expert sta is also available to

provide housing policy consulting to local governments across the country

that are working to build more inclusive communities. Areas of specialized

policy knowledge include inclusionary housing and inclusionary zoning,

impact fee policies, shared equity homeownership models, preservation

strategies, anti-displacement strategies and housing trust funds.

Please see its website, groundedsolutions.org, for more details.

Mile High United Way, and Northern Trust. This catalytic funding was key

to jump-starting Elevation CLT’s operations; however, the organization has

plans to become ﬁnancially self-sucient after year ﬁve of operation.

Long-term funding will come from a combination of the $100 land lease

fee that homeowners pay each month and additional support through

municipal and private partnerships such as land donations.

What else should city leaders know?

Cities can work innovatively on the policy side to support

CLTs. Denver, for example, has made Elevation CLT a

“preservation partner” which means that when homes expire

out of aordability restrictions, Elevation CLT is given the

opportunity to purchase the homes, akin to the “ﬁrst look”

program oered by Fannie Mae. By providing favorable policy

conditions for initiatives like CLTs, cities are better equipped

to expand their aordable housing plans to prioritize lasting

aordability.

Additionally, Elevation CLT does not limit their oerings to

single-family housing. Elevation CLT shows that multi-unit

housing, condos, modular housing, and shipping container

homes are all viable pathways to meet aordable

homeownership goals, particularly as cities look to provide

housing opportunities in a variety of neighborhoods and

locations.

Learn more at elevationclt.org

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Stewardship – Stewardship refers to the activities that CLTs undertake to

ensure the success of CLT homeowners (providing homebuyer counseling,

helping homeowners work with banks to avoid foreclosure during periods

of ﬁscal stress, etc.) and the long-term viability and aordability of homes

on CLT land (helping homeowners budget and seek grants or loans for

home repairs, enforcing and administering the resale restrictions in the

ground lease, prequalifying potential homebuyers, etc.). It also

encompasses CLTs’ eorts to sustain and wisely use grants, donations and

other funds entrusted to the organizations to advance their missions.

Operating a CLT represents a long-term commitment to the community,

and to achieve that, CLTs must also steward themselves by working to

ensure that they have the ﬁnancial and organizational capacity to meet

their responsibilities now and well into the future. For best practices in

stewardship for aordable homeownership programs, please see:

groundedsolutions.org/stewardship-standards

Resale Formula – Terms established in a ground lease that set the

maximum resale price of a home. Resale formulas are typically designed to

allow homeowners to capture a portion of the increased value of their

home due to appreciation, while also maintaining aordability for another

low-income household. Common resale formulas include ﬁxed-rate

formulas, index-based formulas, and appraisal-based formulas. For the

pros and cons of each approach and other key considerations in setting

aordable price, please see the resources collected here: https://

groundedsolutions.org/tools-for-success/resource-library/aordable-

pricing-and-resale-formulas

Tripartite Board – A deﬁning characteristic of CLTs is their “tripartite”

board, meaning that the board of directors is divided into three equal

groups of representatives:

 A third of the board is made up of leaseholders, who are people living

on or using CLT land.

 Another third is made up of community members.

 The ﬁnal third is made up of technical experts, funders or other

stakeholders in the organization.

Appendix C: Glossary

Ground Lease – A renewable and inheritable lease in which a community

land trust grants a homeowner the right to use and possess a parcel of

land for a period of time (typically 99 years). A ground lease generally

grants homeowners most of the rights of conventional homeownership,

but restricts the resale of the property to another income-qualiﬁed

household at an aordable price., as determined by a formula speciﬁed by

the ground lease. For a model CLT ground lease available from Grounded

Solutions Network, please see: https://groundedsolutions.org/tools-for-

success/resource-library/model-ground-leases

Inclusionary Housing Programs – Policies that either require or

encourage new residential developments to make a certain percentage of

the housing units aordable to low- or moderate-income residents. In

exchange, developers often receive cost osets, such as tax abatements,

parking reductions, or density bonuses. For information on designing

voluntary or mandatory inclusionary housing programs, please see:

inclusionaryhousing.org

Lasting Aordability – Lasting aordability in homeownership refers to

a durable system of resale restrictions and supports that ensure that, upon

resale, a home will be sold to income-qualiﬁed homebuyers at a price that

they can aord. CLTs ensure lasting aordability through the use of

renewable and inheritable ground leases. Other shared-equity

homeownership programs may use deed restrictions or restrictive

covenants for the same purpose.

Limited-Equity Homeownership Cooperative (LEHC) – In a limited-

equity homeownership cooperative, members own shares in a cooperative

corporation (co-op), which, in turn, owns multiple dwelling units — often in

a multi-family building. Owning a share entitles a household to occupy one

of the co-op’s dwelling units and to vote in the co-op’s governance. A

cooperative is a “limited equity” cooperative when the sales price of an

ownership share is subject to a resale formula that limits its value to keep

it aordable. LEHC rules also restrict purchasers to those within certain

income limits. These provisions ensure that the housing remains

permanently aordable to families and households of modest means.

COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS: A GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

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Frequently Asked Questions on Land Banking. (n.d.). Center for Community

Progress. https://www.communityprogress.net/land-banking-faq-pages-449.php

What is Inclusionary Housing?. (2017). Grounded Solutions Network https://

inclusionaryhousing.org/inclusionary-housing-explained/what-is-inclusionary-

housing/

Platts-Mills, E. (2018). A Guide for Developing Community Land Trust Aordable

Homeownership Programs in Texas. https://law.utexas.edu/wp-content/uploads/

sites/11/2018/07/2018-07-ECDC-CLT-Toolkit.pdf

Grounded Solutions Network. (n.d.). Work The Problem: Managing Inclusionary

Housing Rental Portfolios. Inclusionary Housing. https://inclusionaryhousing.org/

wp-content/uploads/2018/08/work-the-problem-inclusionary-housing-rental-

mgt.pdf

Endnotes

Wang, R., Cahen, C., Acolin, A., & Walter, R. J. (2019). Tracking Growth and

Evaluating Performance of Shared Equity Homeownership Programs During

Housing Market Fluctuations. https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/working-

papers/tracking-growth-evaluating-performance-shared-equity-homeownership

Ibid.

Ehlenz, M. (2013). Limited Equity Coops by Community Land Trusts. https://

groundedsolutions.org/tools-for-success/resource-library/limited-equity-

housing-co-ops-community-land-trusts

Gaitán, Veronica. (2019). How Housing Aects Children’s Outcomes. Housing

Matters. https://housingmatters.urban.org/articles/how-housing-aects-

childrens-outcomes

Grounded Solutions Network. (n.d.). Community Organizing. https://

groundedsolutions.org/tools-for-success/resource-library/community-organizing

Wang, R., Cahen, C., Acolin, A., & Walter, R. J. (2019). Tracking Growth and

Evaluating Performance of Shared Equity Homeownership Programs During

Housing Market Fluctuations. https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/working-

papers/tracking-growth-evaluating-performance-shared-equity-homeownership

Ibid.

Thaden, E. (2011). Stable Home Ownership in a Turbulent Economy: Delinquencies

and Foreclosures Remain Low in Community Land Trusts. https://www.lincolninst.

edu/publications/working-papers/stable-home-ownership-turbulent-economy

Wang, R., Cahen, C., Acolin, A., & Walter, R. J. (2019). Tracking Growth and

Evaluating Performance of Shared Equity Homeownership Programs During

Housing Market Fluctuations. https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/working-

papers/tracking-growth-evaluating-performance-shared-equity-homeownership

Ibid.

Hauswald, S., & Reyes, S. (2020). Lasting Aordability Is the Path to Resilience.

Shelterforce. https://shelterforce.org/2020/08/02/lasting-aordability-is-the-

path-to-resilience/

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