Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit: The Publicly Owned Variety of Community Land Trust

Abstract

Contrasting cases in Toronto, New York, and Vancouver, we identify benefits and drawbacks associated with the publicly owned variety of community land trust, which we call a public land trust (PLT). Public ownership can obviate the need to finance a land sale, and enable sustained access to ongoing technical assistance and professional expertise, thereby reducing burdens on community capacity. While a degree of community control can also be maintained with public ownership, it may nonetheless be at greater risk when political winds change. In as much as PLTs secure affordable tenure and community control, they may warrant greater policy/planning consideration.

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“…It has also been noted that housing affordability in the CMP was made possible by historic packages of funding, mortgage guarantees and lending by government bodies (Archer, 2022). This suggests that a complementary but necessary aspect of CLT functionality lies in government support (Spicer et al , 2022).…”

“…Despite its name, the trust is not owned by the provincial government but by the community. The current community comprises 260 homes, housing 620 people, and the current average home prices are just over half of Toronto city’s average (Spicer et al , 2022).…”

“…In the TCLT, the titles to the homes reside with the homeowners; however, because the public (provincial government) retains ownership of the land, no ongoing financing or mortgage is required for the land. Furthermore, there are no public financing programmes to finance unit sales; therefore, residents must obtain traditional bank mortgages (Spicer et al , 2022).…”

“…In addition to public land ownership, civic engagement has also been highlighted. The community holds most of the board membership positions and undertakes extensive community work, supporting its mandate of stewardship and benefiting the community and broader public, reflecting a community-driven process (Spicer et al , 2022).…”

“…Vancity, Canada’s largest community credit union, is a key lender to community or non-profit societies which own or develop units on trust-managed public land. Furthermore, the trusts also maintain some market-rate rental units for cross-subsidy purposes (Spicer et al , 2022).…”