Creation of a Community Land Trust for Affordable Housing

Affordable housing is a key priority in every community and for every level of government. Community land trusts can be a tool to address this need. This project includes a framework for local government to work with institutional and other land-owning partners to use partner-owned surplus land to create housing. This would supply the city with land for affordable housing projects and provide the community partner with additional funding.

This project will demonstrate the implementation of a land trust to create more affordable housing in a B.C. municipality. It will also serve as a case study on municipal and non-traditional partnerships for other municipalities. By documenting the process, challenges and lessons learned, the project will build new evidence for successfully implementing a land trust.

Project scope and expected outcomes

Strategic collaboration to help partners meet their goals

Many institutions require additional funding beyond what is provided to them through their funding structures. Meanwhile, municipalities require land to meet their housing objectives. Strategic collaboration and the formation of a community land trust offer a chance for both to realize their goals.

Community land trusts are incorporated organizations created to acquire and hold land for a community. The land is perpetually held in trust to help provide access for community use, such as affordable housing. Land trusts are typically membership-based organizations. They’re usually governed by a board of directors, which is often made up of community members and non-profit organizations with a stake in their community.

Institutions with additional parcels of land are in a good position to support the creation of a community land trust. There are also opportunities to use the surplus land for development while retaining an interest in, or revenue from the land for other uses. Preliminary steps for implementing the land trust have been completed and the partners can now create the trust as planned.

Documenting how to start a community land trust

With support from the National Housing Strategy Demonstrations Initiative, the project will demonstrate the implementation of this community land trust. It will document:

• the process of creating the land trust
• the barriers and opportunities related to working with non-traditional partners

This includes strategies for addressing those barriers and the best practices for creating a community land trust.

The demonstration will:

• anaylze community land trust models that build on and support strong partnerships between municipalities and institutional partners
• develop short- and long-term strategies for the trust
• develop a detailed land disposition strategy

These steps will be documented to form a case study on municipal and non-traditional partnerships for other communities.

The community land trust will play an important role in the housing market once it is established. The land ownership or long-term land lease will be tied to the trust and held in perpetuity. Prospective homeowners or renters may then only pay for the building and associated infrastructure/maintenance costs. This opens the possibility to develop many kinds of housing, including:

• community-owned affordable housing
• affordable ownership opportunities
• housing for Indigenous Peoples

Consulting about community objectives

The demonstration will take place over 36 months. It will begin by:

• developing a land disposition strategy for non-traditional institutional partners
• identifying priority sites
• determining their revenue potential

This includes reviewing the existing assets of all partners and identifying ways to achieve the greatest value.

Following that, it will begin developing a community land trust governance model. This includes public engagement to inform the community about the land trust and consult with it about community objectives. The community land trust will also engage First Nation communities to see how the trust can help achieve their affordable housing objectives.

After the land trust is incorporated as a legal entity, a series of long-term strategic planning and public engagement will take place. The financial model and strategic priorities will be established and priority development options will be identified. A project toolkit and best practices guide for municipal and non-traditional land trust partnerships will also be developed and released.

Overcoming partnership barriers and opening land access to more diverse partners

In the short term, the demonstration will explore different partnership structures and establish ways of engaging with interested parties for land trust creation/development. It will summarize the barriers and opportunities involved when working with non-traditional partners and document the trust’s creation.

Over the longer term, the project hopes to overcome partnership barriers and open land access to more diverse partners. This will lead to affordable homeownership or market rentals in perpetuity. The creation of a community land trust will also establish an organization to spearhead affordable homeownership in municipalities.

The project’s approach can be repeated in other locations. The processes and structures that it uses will be summarized in a toolkit or best practices guide. This resource will identify common barriers or challenges to establishing a land trust and identify ways of overcoming them. This will help other communities, organizations and non-traditional partners collaborate to implement their own community land trust solutions for affordable housing.