On Common Ground: International Perspectives on the Community Land Trust

by John Emmeus Davis (Editor)

Overview

Fifty years ago, African-American activists in Albany, Georgia extended their political fight for civil rights into the economic realm by creating New Communities Inc. They had come to believe that owning land was essential to securing greater independence for their people. But landownership was out-of-reach for most African-Americans in the Deep South of the 1960s and too easily lost if they did acquire a small farm, a plot of land, or a house in town. The visionary founders of New Communities concluded, therefore, that community ownership would be a more secure form of tenure. Community-owned land could be combined, moreover, with the individual ownership of newly built houses, offering low-income people an opportunity to become homeowners. Community-owned land could also provide a platform for the cooperative organization of various enterprises, offering low-income people a chance for economic prosperity.

This ingenious hybrid, blending multiple owners and uses under the watchful eye of a community-controlled, nonprofit organization, was the prototype for what eventually became, after some fine-tuning in subsequent years, the "community land trust" (CLT).

There are now over 260 CLTs in the United States and over 300 in England and Wales. Others have been established in Australia, Belgium, Canada, and France. Interest has also been rising in Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Scotland, and Spain. More recently, the seeds for new CLTs have been scattering across the Global South as well, inspired by a high-profile CLT in Puerto Rico that is securing the homes of hundreds of families residing in informal settlements in San Juan. This has attracted the attention of communities struggling with land and housing insecurity throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, ranging from the urban residents of Brazil's favelasto indigenous peoples in rural regions where their customary, collective use of homesteads, forests, and watersheds is often unprotected by formal title. Activists in Africa and South Asia have also taken note, weighing whether a CLT might promote equitable and sustainable development in their own communities.

On Common Ground: International Perspectives on the Community Land Trust explores the growth of this worldwide CLT movement. The book's twenty-six original essays, contributed by forty-two authors from a dozen different countries, cover five general topics: BRIGHT IDEAS survey the conceptual and practical justifications for community-led development on community-owned land; NATIONAL NETWORKS examine the proliferation and cross-pollination of CLTs in the Global North; REGIONAL SEEDBEDS explore the potential for CLT development in the Global South; URBAN APPLICATIONS showcase the success of selected CLTs in London, Brussels, Boston, Burlington, and Denver, a handful of highly productive CLTs that are providing affordable housing, spurring neighborhood revitalization, and securing land for urban agriculture; CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES reflect on the changing environment to which CLTs must adapt if they are to "go to scale," while remaining accountable to the communities they serve.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781734403015
Publisher:	Center for CLT Innovation
Publication date:	07/09/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	480
File size:	40 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

John Emmeus Davis is a founding partner of Burlington Associates in Community Development, a national consulting cooperative in the USA. He holds an MS and PhD from Cornell University and has taught housing policy and neighborhood planning at New Hampshire College, the University of Vermont, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He served for ten years as the city's housing director in Burlington, Vermont under Mayors Bernie Sanders and Peter Clavelle. Community land trusts (CLTs) have been a prominent part of his professional practice and scholarly writing for 40 years. In addition to publishing a number of books and articles about CLTs, he was a co-producer for the documentary film, Arc of Justice. He is a co-director of the Center for CLT Innovation. (See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Emmeus_Davis)

Table of Contents

Figures

Foreword: Jerry Maldonado, Ford Foundation; David Ireland, World Habitat

Introduction: On Common Ground

Part One. Bright Ideas: Surveying the Diverse Landscape of Common Ground: Structures, Strategies, and Justifications  

1. In Land We Trust: Key Features and Common Variations of Community Land Trusts in the US 2. The Once and Future Garden City 3. Common Ground: Community-Owned Land as a Platform for Equitable and Sustainable Development 4. Making a Case for CLTs in All Markets, Even Cold Ones 5. Challenges for the New Kid on the Block-Collective Property

Part Two. National Networks: Examining the Proliferation and Cross-Pollination of CLTs in the Global North

6. From Model to Movement: The Growth of Community Land Trusts in the United States 7. Origins and Evolution of Urban Community Land Trusts in Canada 8. Messy Is Good! Origins and Evolution of the CLT Movement in England 9. Beyond England: Origins and Evolution of the Community Land Trust Movement in Europe

Part Three. Regional Seedbeds: Exploring the Potential for CLT Growth in the Global South

10. Collective Land Tenure in Latin America and the Caribbean, Past and Present 11. Seeding the CLT in Latin America and the Caribbean: Origins, Achievements, and the Proof-of-Concept Example of the Caño Martín Peña Community Land Trust 12. Community Land Trusts in Informal Settlements: Adapting Features of Puerto Rico's Caño Martín Peña CLT to Address Land Insecurity in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 13. A Watershed Land Trust in Honduras: Profile of Foundation Eco Verde Sostenible 14. Seeding the CLT in Africa: Lessons from the Early Efforts to Establish Community Land Trusts in Kenya 15. The Origins and Evolution of the CLT Model in South Asia

Part Four. Urban Applications: Measuring the Progress of High-Performing CLTs in Selected Cities

16. Take a Stand, Own the Land: Dudley Neighbors Inc., a Community Land Trust in Boston, Massachusetts 17. Lands in Trust for Urban Farming: Toward a Scalable Model 18. The Best Things in Life Are Perpetually Affordable: Profile of the Champlain Housing Trust, Burlington, Vermont 19. Stewardship of Urban Real Estate for Long-Term Community Benefit: Profile of the Urban Land Conservancy in Denver, Colorado 20. London Community Land Trust: A Story of People, Power, and Perseverance 21. From Pressure Group to Government Partner: The Story of the Brussels Community Land Trust

Part Five. Critical perspectives: Meeting the Challenges of a Changing Environment

22. The Burden of Patience in a Long March Toward Racial Justice 23. A Reflection on the Bioethics of Community Land Trusts 24. Community Control of Land: Thinking Beyond the Generic Community Land Trust 25. Preserving Urban Generativity: The Role of Porous Spaces in CLT Projects 26. Better Together: The Challenging, Transformative Complexity of Community, Land, and Trust

Contributors

Index

 

Editorial Reviews

"Overall, the editors masterfully compile original essays into a persuasive argument for solving the international land rights and housing crisis. On Common Ground resoundingly demonstrates the transformative possibilities that CLTs can produce across the globe when community organizing, operation, and ownership of land connects and expands. Given the target audience includes those working in housing and community development, community organizing, and policy analysis, positions many planners hold or engage, I highly recommend this book to planning professionals and academicians alike."

-Journal of the American Planning Association

"An essential read for those interested in addressing the affordable housing crisis, which will continue to be exacerbated by the negative economic impacts of COVID-19. Due to a long and painful history of institutional racism and the lack of responsive action by many elected leaders, home ownership and quality rental housing have historically been denied to persons of color. The book examines the growth of the community land trust (CLT) model and how it has adapted in urban and rural environments, offering readers a thoughtful and empathetic overview of how to start and scale a CLT to ensure that affordable housing incorporates its residents. The book leaves readers with a sense of hope for the future and practical ways in which this model can be built and sustained."

--Robert Burns, Board President, Grounded Solutions Network

"Around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic effects threaten to exacerbate already severe inequities, especially with regards to the ownership, access, and control of land and housing. In the United States, as eviction moratoriums in many states and localities come to an end and jobs remain scarce, experts are predicting a possibly unprecedented wave of displacement and homelessness. Against this bleak backdrop, a new book offers a ray of hope. On Common Ground, edited by John Emmeus Davis, Line Algoed, and María Hernández-Torrales, documents how interest in one of the more exciting new economic models to emerge in recent decades, the Community Land Trust (CLT), is spreading around the world."

--Thomas Hanna, Research Director, Democracy Collaborative

From the Publisher