The Radical Potential of Community Land Trusts: How CLTs can Transform Economies

Community Land Trusts are organizations that collectively own and permanently steward land for the benefit of local communities. They are commonly known for developing and managing affordable housing, but in reality they can do much more than that. They can be tools for restoring reciprocal relationships with land, forming local governance systems that support community self- determination, and advancing locally-based economies rooted in care, solidarity, and justice. This creative honors thesis shares stories of radical initiatives within Community Land Trusts. These include civil-rights-era Black farmers starting the first CLT to collectively build economic power, CLTs in low-income neighborhoods of NYC transcending and transforming decades-long cycles of harmful economic development, and small farmers in rural MA using CLTs to envision and build a locally-owned regional regnerative food system. CLTs are important tools to help communities build just, sustainable economic systems that can rival capitalism. But not every CLT is transformative. It’s important to understand what transformative CLTs can do, how they grapple with challenges, and how they can strengthen their impacts and build power across society.