Land for the Common Good
What happens when we treat land as a resource shared for the common good instead of an investment opportunity?
Community land trusts (CLTs) are an increasingly popular solution to improve housing affordability. They have had a presence in Canada since the 1980s but have become more popular in the last decade in response to worsening housing affordability. CLTs are locally driven, grassroots nonprofit organizations that acquire and hold land for the long-term benefit of a community. This land is often used to develop and maintain permanently affordable housing, in some cases with a focus on providing housing for marginalized groups.
Democratic Use of Land
CLTs acquire the land, keep it off the market, and facilitate community membersโ democratic control over the use of the land โ which could include selling or leasing the building to homeowners, non-profit housing providers, or government entities. Ultimately, the board of the CLT has responsibility for ensuring that the housing provided on its land remains affordable and safe for community members. The approach that CLTs take de-commodify housing, support the notion that housing is a human right, and have the potential to reduce displacement, housing precarity, and homelessness. They also develop connections within the community and respond to local needs.
CLTs play a particularly important role in ensuring that lower-income residents in Toronto have an affordable place to call home that will remain affordable in perpetuity. This can reduce displacement by eliminating the risk of bad-faith evictions, providing stability to tenants who otherwise might encounter housing instability as a result of having a series of private landlords interested in increasing their profit margins. They also promote community control and engagement in the development process, giving community members more say over local land use. This allows the needs and preferences of the community to play a central role in decision-making and can help to ensure affordable housing is in areas with good access to services and amenities. Because CLTs are community-driven, they can acquire land in areas that are important to the community, rather than being limited to areas where developers want to build.
Some Challenges
Despite the many benefits of CLTs, there are also some challenges that need to be addressed. Acquiring land can be difficult and expensive, especially in urban areas like Toronto where land values are high. Additionally, CLTs may face resistance from private developers and landlords, or encounter them as competition when acquiring property. Despite these challenges, some communities in Toronto have continued to support the availability of affordable housing in their communities using CLTs in the face of governments scaling back their efforts to invest in and support social and affordable housing. Parkdale and Kensington have successfully organized to bring land and buildings into community ownership and ensure that the units will always be affordable. These efforts have made housing available to low-income residents and those on fixed incomes, who otherwise cannot afford average rents in the city. At the end of 2022, hundreds of homes in these neighbourhoods were transferred to land trusts who are committed to providing and expanding affordable housing options.
As part of their investment into solutions that support the National Housing Strategy, the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation funded a variety of projects that will expand the impact of CLTs across the country, including new CLTs, creating loan funds to scale up existing CLTs, and larger partnerships to scale up CLTs. One of these projects is a technical assistance program through the Canadian Network of Community Land Trusts (CNCLT). CNCLT is a network of over 20 Canadian land trusts that shares knowledge, tools and resources around how to establish and maintain CLTs. The technical assistance program aims to support the growth of the CLT sector, documents the best practices and provides support in developing CLTs.
As residential developments continue to focus on market-rate rental units, we need more solutions like CLTs to ensure that all community members have an affordable place to call home. You can find out more about CLTs, see if a CLT exists in your neighbourhood, and learn how to get involved or to start a CLT on the CNCLT website.
Research Assistant Natalie Pilla
