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About 125 community land trusts (CLTs) have been formed in communities in the USA in response to either disinvestment or gentrification. The CLT acquires land to take it permanently off the market and make it available for the use of the community. As a democratic organization, the CLT is intended to empower the community in determining what is done with land in that area. The CLT may rehab existing buildings, build new houses or apartment buildings, or do other types of development work. The typical aims of the CLT approach are:

? Resident control of housing

? Community control over land use and development

? Removal of land and housing from the speculative market

? Making sure that housing remains permanently affordable to working class people.

The residents own the buildings but the CLT retains ownership of the land. This is how permanent affordability is enforced. The dwellings on the CLT land cannot be sold at whatever price the market will bear. Instead, there is a clause in the ground lease that enables the CLT to buy back the dwelling at a restricted price if the resident wants to sell it. The CLT enforces the community’s interest in preserving the affordability of housing.

In recent decades most non-profit housing development in the USA has been done by community development corporations (CDCs) that build rental housing. These vary considerably among themselves but many are lacking in democratic accountability to the tenants or the communities where they operate. Generally the tenants in their buildings have the same sort of relationship to the CDC landlord as tenants in private, for-profit rental buildings.

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