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

Por John Emmeus Davis

Preface:
The community land trust (CLT) arrived quietly on the American scene in the late 1960s, an outgrowth of the civil rights movement in the Deep South. It was slow to spread. Th e cost of acquiring land was a formidable obstacle, as was the CLT model’s novelty. In those early years, it was difficult to find funders or families who were comfortable with the notion of building and buying homes on land that was leased from a nonprofit organization controlled by a community larger than the leaseholders. Only half a dozen rural CLTs got started in the 1970s. Another 20, including the first urban CLTs, were organized in the 1980s. Then began a period of steady growth. By 1995, there were 100 CLTs in the United States. By 2005, there were over 200, with a dozen new ones being organized every year. Today, CLTs are operating in 45 states and the District of Columbia. They have begun appearing in other countries, as well; CLTs are underway or under development in Canada, England, Scotland, Australia, and Kenya. Once described as a “tentative, experimental model” with no assurance of survival,1 CLTs are now firmly established and widely distributed. The model has become a movement.