Community Land Trusts (CLTs)

2020

Community Land Trust Bibliography

Ed. John Emmeus Davis

 A Community Land Trust Bibliography, selected and compiled by John Emmeus Davis and published by the Center for Community Land Trust Innovation. This selection of books, articles, and films about community land trusts is updated four times a year.

2019

Big Tech’s Affordable Housing Push Doesn’t Let Them off the Hook

Gregory Scruggs
Next City

In the face of Microsoft's announcement of a large allocation for loans to help middle- and low-income families meet the costs of housing. People working in affordable housing across the country, including John Duda, have called attention to the fact that this is not a long-term solution. 

2018

Health Anchor Institutions Investing in Community Land and Housing

Bich Ha Pham and Jarrid Green
Build Healthy Places Network

Many anchor institutions are also major landowners in their communities, and many are already engaged in housing programs such as employer-assisted housing. Anchor institutions can and should employ CLTs to maximize the impact of their long-term investments in housing for their workforce, and utilize and support CLTs to help build more inclusive communities around their institutions more generally. 

2017

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008 Foreclosure Survey

Marge Misak , Cuyahoga Community Land Trust, Cleveland and National CLT Academy Board Member and with support from Roger Lewis (National CLT Network) and Yesim Sungu-Eryilmaz

2008

A foreclosure-free option

David Abromowitz and Roz Greenstein
Boston Globe

2007

The Case for Plan B

Tim McKenzie
Shelterforce, issue 151

2006

CLTs Keep Housing Affordable

Janet Hamer
Partners in Community and Economic Development, volume 16, number 3

2005

2004

2002

2001

2000

Boston’s Dudley Triangle

Catherine Toups
Building Blocks, volume 1, issue 2

1997

1995

1991

n/a

2019

2015

Do Inclusionary Housing Policies Promote Housing Affordability? Evidence from the Palmer Decision in California

Ann Hollingshead

Many cities have responded to rising affordability challenges with inclusionary housing policies, where a municipality requires or incentivizes a developer building a new development to contribute affordable housing units or pay a fee. While the aim of these policies is to promote housing affordability, some critics have raised concerns about their potential unintended market consequences. Specifically, to the extent that inclusionary housing policies create opportunity costs for developers and function like a tax on housing supply, they may stifle housing production and increase the price of market-rate units, reducing overall affordability. However, inclusionary policies may also increase the supply of affordable housing, which would place downward pressure on prices. This paper examines these relationships using the 2009 ruling by California’s Second District of Appeal, Palmer/Sixth Street Properties LP v. City of Los Angeles, which substantially weakened inclusionary housing policies in the rental market. This analysis fails to find evidence that weakening an inclusionary policy is associated with a decrease in the rental price of high-cost housing units. Meanwhile, these results also suggest that inclusionary housing policies pre-Palmer, in general, did promote housing affordability in the low-cost market. 

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

1992

2019

The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Rental Homes

Andrew Aurand, Dan Emmanuel, Ellen Errico, Dina Pinsky and Diane Yentel

2018

The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Rental Homes

Andrew Aurand, Dan Emmanuel, Diane Yentel, Ellen Errico and Marjorie Pang

Community Control of Land and Housing: Exploring strategies for combating displacement, expanding ownership, and building community wealth

Jarrid Green and Thomas Hanna

A historical legacy of displacement and exclusion, firmly rooted in racism and discriminatory public policy, has fundamentally restricted access to land and housing and shaped ownership dynamics, particularly for people of color and low-income communities. Today, many communities across the country are facing new threats of instability, unaffordability, disempowerment, and displacement due to various economic, demographic, and cultural changes that are putting increased pressure on land and housing resources.

2017

2016

Community Land Trusts

Michela Zonta
Center for American Progress

Community Land Trusts

Michela Zonta
Center for American Progress

Community Land Trusts: A Promising Tool for Expanding and Protecting Affordable Housing

Michela Zonta
Center for American Progress

This new report from the Center for American Progress (CAP) acknowledges the importance and potential of community land trusts (CLTs) to build wealth, stabilize communities, and preserve affordable housing. It outlines the characteristics of shared equity models and provides site acquisition strategies for CLTs. The author makes policy recommendations to restore funding for affordable housing and community development programs, broaden CLT’s access to the secondary market and FHA-backed mortgages, and increase lenders’ comfort with the model:

2015

2014

Origins and Evolution of the Community Land Trust in the United States

John Emmeus Davis

The story told here of the CLT’s origins and evolution will sort the model’s distinguishing characteristics into three clusters – ownership, organization, and operation – and then say how each of them came to be added to the definition and structure of the CLT over time. The reality was much messier, of course, with ideas and influences often leapfrogging the narrative boundaries between eras. History seldom unfolds as neatly in the living as it does in the telling. 

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

Lands in Trust; Homes that Last: A Performance Evaluation of the Champlain Housing Trust

John Emmeus Davis and Alice Stokes

New study of Burlington community land trust documents success of community land trust model

2008

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

John Emmeus Davis and Rick Jacobus

Written by John Emmeus Davis and Rick Jacobus, the Lincoln Institute's The City-CLT Partnership identifies local policies that support community land trust development.

2007

CLT Scale Capacity Building Report

Tasha Harmon and Carri Munn
report completed for CLTs in the Portland Metropolitan Region regarding "getting to scale"

2006

Blueprint Buffalo Action Plan

Joseph Schilling, Lisa Schamess, Jonathan Logan and with John Kromer, Lucinda Flowers, Kermit Lind, and Lee Sobel

2005

1993

Community Land Trusts and Rural Housing

Housing Assistance Council

Published in 1993, this study, although somewhat dated, provides a very useful overview of the community land trust model as well as containing four case studies.

Community Land Trust Bibliography

Ed. John Emmeus Davis

 A Community Land Trust Bibliography, selected and compiled by John Emmeus Davis and published by the Center for Community Land Trust Innovation. This selection of books, articles, and films about community land trusts is updated four times a year.

Big Tech’s Affordable Housing Push Doesn’t Let Them off the Hook

Gregory Scruggs
Next City

In the face of Microsoft's announcement of a large allocation for loans to help middle- and low-income families meet the costs of housing. People working in affordable housing across the country, including John Duda, have called attention to the fact that this is not a long-term solution. 

Health Anchor Institutions Investing in Community Land and Housing

Bich Ha Pham and Jarrid Green
Build Healthy Places Network

Many anchor institutions are also major landowners in their communities, and many are already engaged in housing programs such as employer-assisted housing. Anchor institutions can and should employ CLTs to maximize the impact of their long-term investments in housing for their workforce, and utilize and support CLTs to help build more inclusive communities around their institutions more generally. 

2008 Foreclosure Survey

Marge Misak , Cuyahoga Community Land Trust, Cleveland and National CLT Academy Board Member and with support from Roger Lewis (National CLT Network) and Yesim Sungu-Eryilmaz

A foreclosure-free option

David Abromowitz and Roz Greenstein
Boston Globe

The Case for Plan B

Tim McKenzie
Shelterforce, issue 151

CLTs Keep Housing Affordable

Janet Hamer
Partners in Community and Economic Development, volume 16, number 3

Boston’s Dudley Triangle

Catherine Toups
Building Blocks, volume 1, issue 2

Do Inclusionary Housing Policies Promote Housing Affordability? Evidence from the Palmer Decision in California

Ann Hollingshead

Many cities have responded to rising affordability challenges with inclusionary housing policies, where a municipality requires or incentivizes a developer building a new development to contribute affordable housing units or pay a fee. While the aim of these policies is to promote housing affordability, some critics have raised concerns about their potential unintended market consequences. Specifically, to the extent that inclusionary housing policies create opportunity costs for developers and function like a tax on housing supply, they may stifle housing production and increase the price of market-rate units, reducing overall affordability. However, inclusionary policies may also increase the supply of affordable housing, which would place downward pressure on prices. This paper examines these relationships using the 2009 ruling by California’s Second District of Appeal, Palmer/Sixth Street Properties LP v. City of Los Angeles, which substantially weakened inclusionary housing policies in the rental market. This analysis fails to find evidence that weakening an inclusionary policy is associated with a decrease in the rental price of high-cost housing units. Meanwhile, these results also suggest that inclusionary housing policies pre-Palmer, in general, did promote housing affordability in the low-cost market. 

The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Rental Homes

Andrew Aurand, Dan Emmanuel, Ellen Errico, Dina Pinsky and Diane Yentel

The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Rental Homes

Andrew Aurand, Dan Emmanuel, Diane Yentel, Ellen Errico and Marjorie Pang

Community Control of Land and Housing: Exploring strategies for combating displacement, expanding ownership, and building community wealth

Jarrid Green and Thomas Hanna

A historical legacy of displacement and exclusion, firmly rooted in racism and discriminatory public policy, has fundamentally restricted access to land and housing and shaped ownership dynamics, particularly for people of color and low-income communities. Today, many communities across the country are facing new threats of instability, unaffordability, disempowerment, and displacement due to various economic, demographic, and cultural changes that are putting increased pressure on land and housing resources.

Community Land Trusts

Michela Zonta
Center for American Progress

Community Land Trusts

Michela Zonta
Center for American Progress

Community Land Trusts: A Promising Tool for Expanding and Protecting Affordable Housing

Michela Zonta
Center for American Progress

This new report from the Center for American Progress (CAP) acknowledges the importance and potential of community land trusts (CLTs) to build wealth, stabilize communities, and preserve affordable housing. It outlines the characteristics of shared equity models and provides site acquisition strategies for CLTs. The author makes policy recommendations to restore funding for affordable housing and community development programs, broaden CLT’s access to the secondary market and FHA-backed mortgages, and increase lenders’ comfort with the model:

Origins and Evolution of the Community Land Trust in the United States

John Emmeus Davis

The story told here of the CLT’s origins and evolution will sort the model’s distinguishing characteristics into three clusters – ownership, organization, and operation – and then say how each of them came to be added to the definition and structure of the CLT over time. The reality was much messier, of course, with ideas and influences often leapfrogging the narrative boundaries between eras. History seldom unfolds as neatly in the living as it does in the telling. 

Lands in Trust; Homes that Last: A Performance Evaluation of the Champlain Housing Trust

John Emmeus Davis and Alice Stokes

New study of Burlington community land trust documents success of community land trust model

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

John Emmeus Davis and Rick Jacobus

Written by John Emmeus Davis and Rick Jacobus, the Lincoln Institute's The City-CLT Partnership identifies local policies that support community land trust development.

CLT Scale Capacity Building Report

Tasha Harmon and Carri Munn
report completed for CLTs in the Portland Metropolitan Region regarding "getting to scale"

Blueprint Buffalo Action Plan

Joseph Schilling, Lisa Schamess, Jonathan Logan and with John Kromer, Lucinda Flowers, Kermit Lind, and Lee Sobel

Community Land Trusts and Rural Housing

Housing Assistance Council

Published in 1993, this study, although somewhat dated, provides a very useful overview of the community land trust model as well as containing four case studies.