Collective Ownership and Stewardship
Community Land Trust
A community land trust (CLTs) is a community led nonprofit which aims to to maintain the affordability of land and property in perpetuity by acquiring land and removing it from the speculative real estate market. CLTs steward the buildings or other assets on that land to ensure that they continue to serve as a community good. CLTs are key in the housing justice movement because they keep housing affordable.
As local governments and housing advocates struggle to meet the growing need for affordable housing, Fideicomiso Comunitario Tierra Libre (FCTL) provides a community-driven solution. We are building a model to stop displacement, stabilize neighborhoods, and ensure that homes remain in community hands—not on the speculative market.
Community Land Trusts (CLTs) are non-profit organizations that take land off the private market and hold it in trust for the benefit of the community. This means the land is collectively stewarded to ensure permanent affordability and stability. Land is more than property—it’s the foundation of life: where we live, learn, work, and grow.
The CLT movement in the United States began with New Communities Inc., founded by Black farmers in Albany, Georgia, during the Civil Rights Movement. Their vision of collective ownership and self-determination laid the groundwork for a model that today offers hope in the fight for housing justice. Across the country, CLTs are emerging as powerful tools to protect communities, keep wealth local, and ensure that everyone has a place to call home.
FCTL draws inspiration from these histories and from our own ancestral traditions of land stewardship and collective care. We believe that land is not just something to own—it is something to honor and share. Together, we are reclaiming land for the common good, creating housing that is affordable for generations, and building the future our communities deserve.
Community Land Trust and Housing Justice
Cities across the globe are facing a housing crisis, and Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles are no exception. Rapid gentrification is disrupting the social fabric of our neighborhoods, displacing long-term residents and eroding the sense of belonging that makes our communities strong. We see it when rents skyrocket overnight, when buildings are purchased to force tenants out, and when families are left with few options despite legal protections.
What is Collective Ownership and Stewardship?
Fideicomiso Comunitario Tierra Libre Vision for Community Ownership and Stewardship
Since 2018, our journey to establish a community land trust in Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles has been one of collective learning, struggle, and expansion of imagination around what true community ownership means.
From the beginning, we brought together people from diverse backgrounds—renters, homeowners, and community organizers—all united by a shared vision of housing justice. But difficult conversations emerged, especially around homeownership. Some participants were struggling to survive on less than $15,000 a year, while others had managed to purchase homes. How could we build a model of community ownership that worked for everyone?
We knew there were no easy answers, but we embraced these challenges as opportunities to forge new pathways. Through this process, we recognized the deep structural inequalities embedded in our housing system and the need for essential community infrastructure to counter them. For us, community control means ensuring that residents have access to safe, permanently affordable housing—whether through housing cooperatives, affordable apartments, tenant associations, or single-family homeownership. More than just providing housing, it is about affirming the fundamental right of people to organize, make decisions about their living conditions, and steward their homes and communities for future generations.
At its core, community-owned housing is rooted in two key principles: decommodification and shared governance. It cannot be reduced to a single definition, as it reflects the unique needs, histories, and aspirations of the people shaping it. This adaptability is precisely what allows community-owned housing models to flourish across different contexts.
Alternative Housing Models:
Community Land Trusts (CLT) are non-profit organizations that treat land as a common good. Individuals, cooperatives, or organizations may own the structures that are on that land, and the community land trust helps to steward the land in collaboration with the community to ensure it is cared for in ways that benefit the community.
Social Housing can be government owned, tenant-owned, or owned by nonprofits (such as community land trusts). It is permanently affordable because it is not on the speculative (for-profit) market. It can never be sold for profit, and therefore is not subject to market fluctuations. Social housing is also community-controlled, meaning those living in it play a large role in collaboratively deciding how it is managed.
Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) is a proposed law that guarantees tenants have the first opportunity to purchase their building if and when an owner decides to sell.