Community Land Trusts on rise

Community Land Trusts have grown steadily and spread all over the country, as more nonprofits and local governments have embraced the concept as a way to provide permanently affordable housing, according to a new survey by the Lincoln Institute.

Key findings of the survey, now available in this working paper , include:
• CLTs largely serve very low (less than 50% area median income), low (50-80% area median income) and some moderate (80-120% area median income) income households.
• While most (95 percent) of the responding organizations have units for homeownership, 45 percent reported that they also have rental units in their housing portfolio. The majority of organizations (80 percent) have less than 100 units including those owned and rented.
• Of the 6,495 homeownership and rental units reported, only 3 percent of ownership units and 7 percent of rental units were vacant.
• The majority (67 percent) of residential buildings are single family attached or detached houses.
• New construction is by far the most common housing development activity, although responding organizations also reported acquiring and rehabilitating existing homes.
Almost all of the respondents reported a 99-year ground lease, although some ground lease durations are for as few as 20. Nearly 60% of responding organizations reported that they had resales.