A community land trust (CLT) is a type of community ownership model where the community stewards land in perpetuity for the common good of those who live there, says GenesisHOPE Executive Director Jeanine Hatcher.
GenesisHOPE is a nonprofit that strives to improve equity through community health and development, affordable housing, and open green spaces in Islandview, the Villages of Detroit, and other nearby neighborhoods.
The organization is working to develop the Common Ground Community Land Trust as part of its drive to create more affordable housing options for Detroiters. The idea came to Hatcher years ago after she visited New York City and conducted research about CLTs to address gentrification and displacement. She began strategizing around ideas that would use vacant land in Detroit neighborhoods.
The organization plans to acquire 10 lots from the
Detroit Land Bank and is considering building single-family housing on those lots, organized through a community land trust.
“The point is whatever is developed on the land or owned by the land trust, it’s typically permanently affordable, and it’s done so with restricted ground leases that restrict how equity will be shared,” Hatcher says. The goal behind the land trust is that families at every income level have choices and options for a quality home.
Built by community, for community
But for community land trusts to work, you must have community, Hatcher says. GenesisHOPE created a seven-member advisory board, also known as "the fellows," who will be in charge of community outreach and engagement, as well as creating documents for the Common Ground CLT.
Says Makaila Lucas, project manager with GenesisHOPE, “We chose those fellows to transition to an advisory board to create these governance documents, the by-laws, the ground lease, the home buyer selection criteria and things of that nature that establishes the community land trust.”
Those advisory board members are currently learning how to set up a trust with Jeff Washburn from
Burlington Associates, a consultant through the
Detroit Justice Center. Burlington is a national consulting cooperative that provides technical assistance to community land trusts and nonprofits that are working on permanently affordable housing initiatives.
One of the fellows, Delores Orr, vice president of the East Village Association, became involved with GenesisHOPE after her daughter attended one of its summer camps. She came across information on the community land trust and was intrigued by the idea of bringing affordable housing to the area.
Toyia Watts, president of the Charlevoix Village Association, became a fellow after learning about what other nonprofits in the area were doing and hearing about GenesisHOPE's plan to create a community land trust.
“I feel like I’m going back to school,” Watts says. How the land will be developed, how the project will be funded, and how the houses will be built are part of the complexity of steps the fellows are learning.
Orr says it’s also about studying the city’s laws for the land.
“Individuals as homeowners, as community members or whatever, there are lots that you can buy,” Orr says. “But to go into what we’re going into, there are bundles of land, and that’s a whole different thing. The laws are different.”
Watts also conducted her own research on the history of CLT’s.
“I didn’t know that it began in 1969, back in the day about black farmers wanting their land,” Watts says. “I never thought it would come up to Detroit…Land never crossed my mind. We just always thought about who owned the house; that’s all we knew. We never figured in the City of Detroit about land, but we’ve got so much of it, what are we going to do with all this land now?”
Home ownership and protecting community assets
The importance of CLTs is that it shows people that they can own a home in an area they thought was not accessible, Orr says. She says that the model is meant to build communities for generations to thrive and not have to leave their home.
Community land trusts are a democratic way to preserve the affordability of housing that benefits the community. A nonprofit entity owns the land in perpetuity, and those who buy homes on it pay a very small lease for the land. (The home purchase amount is economical because the purchaser is not buying the land, just the house.)
The model helps to sustain the stock of affordable housing as the homeowners agree to sell their home at a controlled price point to keep it affordable in perpetuity. The trusts are run by ordinary people – people like Orr and Watts – with board members typically consisting of residents and community members.
“They can now take not just ownership, but they can create a community inside of a community,” Orr says. Some CLTs have amenities like community gardens, public buildings, shared workspace and conservation landscapes.
“They [homeowners] can say what’s going to be built there," says Orr. "They can say how the home is going to be designed. They can say who’s going to build it.”
Although the organization is still battling to purchase the vacant lots for development, there is hope from community members about the CLT model.
“I’m excited,” Orr says. “I’m extremely excited over here, where we live. So many things are coming up, just little common things that you once forgot about are coming back. That’s going to happen all over Detroit. We’re rising from the ashes, and this is our vehicle.”
Resilient Neighborhoods is a reporting and engagement series examining how Detroit residents and community development organizations work together to strengthen local neighborhoods. It's made possible with funding from The Kresge Foundation.