A Community Land Trust Movement Rises in New York City: Leadership Lessons | Nonprofit Quarterly | Civic News. Empowering Nonprofits. Advancing Justice.

"New York City's community land trust (CLT) movement has grown dramatically to combat displacement and bring land and housing into community ownership. The number of CLTs has multiplied tenfold-from just two 12 years ago on Manhattan's Lower East Side to more than 20 CLTs across the city's five boroughs. Through CLTs, low-income and Black communities and communities of color are reclaiming land for the public good, challenging real estate speculation, and ensuring permanently affordable housing and neighborhood-led development."

"Nearly 50 percent of low-income New Yorkers pay more than half their incomes in rent. Over 140,000 sleep in shelters each night. The city lost more than one million affordable apartments in the last two decades, driving out 9 percent of its Black population- nearly 200,000 people. By combining land ownership with organizing, New York City's [community land trusts] are transforming neighborhoods."

Community land trusts (CLTs) in New York City have expanded rapidly, growing from two to more than twenty across all five boroughs. CLTs are community-governed nonprofits that acquire, own, and steward land to preserve deeply affordable housing and enable neighborhood-led development. The movement centers Indigenous land practices and civil rights-era organizing, pairing land ownership with grassroots advocacy. Urgent housing needs—high rent burdens, widespread shelter use, and the loss of over one million affordable apartments that displaced nearly 200,000 Black residents—underscore CLTs' role in anti-displacement and racial justice efforts. A 2013 coalition accelerated local CLT growth through organizing and peer exchange.

Read at Nonprofit Quarterly | Civic News. Empowering Nonprofits. Advancing Justice.