Community Land Trusts are designed to ensure community stewardship of land. BLDG Memphis wrapped up our 2021 Pizza with Planners series with Landing on CLTs: Preserving Homeowner Equity in Neighborhoods. The panelists from across the community development sector spoke about the need for community land trusts and the transformative effect it can have on building equity and preserving affordability in neighborhoods.

The panelists were members of the Just Growth Collaborative, an initiative led by the Center for Transforming Communities (CTC) to create a city-wide land trust that keeps community voices at the forefront of the movement. Moderated by the Executive Director of CTC, Justin Merrick, our panelists Dominique Anderson, Executive Director of the Tennessee Affordable Housing Coalition, Amy Schaftlein, Executive Director of United Housing, Dillon Scott-Holliam, Program Associate at RegionSmart and Joni Laney, President of the Binghampton Community Land Trust discussed how CLTs are a tool to combat displacement and keep homes affordable. CLTs are cited in Memphis 3.0 as a strategy to explore “which calls on our city to invest in the economic potential and growth of neighborhoods by building up not out.” We also learned about the history of the Binghampton Land Trust and how the community came together to advocate for this resource and how it helped the residents of Binghampton.

Quotables from the Event

"You cannot continue to buy our homes for cheap and sell them back to us for super-expensive." - Amy Schaftlein, Executive Director, United Housing

"CLTs are an opportunity for CDCs and emerging developers to collaborate and create projects that make their neighborhoods proud." - Dillion Scott-Holliam, Program Associate, RegionSmart

"CLTs are a way to create agency over how your community grows and ultimately wins." - Dominique Anderson, Executive Director, Tennessee Affordable Housing Coalition

"Everything went though a collaborative group process to create community buy-in." - Joni Laney, President, Binghampton Community Land Trust on explaining the importance of keeping community voices involved in the process.

This event wrapped up or series on CLTs, but to find more resources about CLTs and other shared equity models, please check our social media.

For more information on how to start your own CLT, check out the work of Grounded Solutions.