Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.  

 

- Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities 

 

With the Atlanta metropolitan region in a long-term crisis of steadily rising home prices and rents, land cost and housing availability pose significant barriers to affordability. Land ownership determines who makes decisions about valuable resources, captures economic gains, and the distribution of income, wealth and political influence. Recognizing the role of land in housing, the Atlanta Regional Housing Forum will explore how land banks and community land trusts transition properties to community control and convert vacant land to community assets and will examine what’s necessary to scale output to meet a more significant portion of our region’s housing need.   

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A community land trust (CLT) is typically a nonprofit organization that purchases and develops land on behalf of a place-based community while acting as the long-term steward for affordable housing, community gardens, civic buildings, commercial spaces, and other community assets.

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The CLT model started in Georgia in 1969 on nearly 6,000 acres as a predominantly African American farm collective called New Communities, Inc. The number of CLTs in the U.S. increased by 30% from 2011 to 2022, and there are now more than 300 shared equity housing organizations in 46 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

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The growth in CLTs can be linked to the benefits of the shared equity model, which preserves affordable homeownership opportunities by allowing borrowers to purchase homes at below-market prices. In exchange, borrowers agree to sell the property only to other income-qualified buyers and at a restricted sales price. 

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Shared equity initiatives have improved access to homeownership, neighborhood stability, wealth creation, and mortgage debt reduction. While the benefits of a successful CLT are many, proponents are most encouraged that only a one-time subsidy is needed to bring the home under the land trust to keep them affordable in perpetuity, thereby stewarding wise expenditure of public and philanthropic funding.  Three local CLTs, the Atlanta Land Trust, the Decatur Land Trust, and the People’s Community Land Trust, were established for these reasons.

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