FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Anthony Flint
617-661-3016 x116
LINCOLN INSTITUTE HOSTS MAJOR CONFERENCE ON COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS – STRATEGIES FOR STABILITY AMID HOUSING TURMOIL
National Community Land Trust Network Annual Meeting and National CLT Academy will focus on best practices, foreclosures, green building at Seaport World Trade Center in Boston December 2-5
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (November 26, 2008) – Best practices in community land trusts, including the purchase of foreclosed properties and green building strategies, will be the focus of the 2008 National Community Land Trust Network Annual Meeting and National CLT Academy, supported by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
“The Strength of Community in a Sea of Change: The CLT Story,” at the Seaport World Trade Center December 2-5 in Boston, is also hosted by the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, one of the nation’s premiere community land trusts located in Roxbury, Mass.
Tina Brooks, undersecretary of Housing and Community Development for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, will be the keynote speaker Wednesday December 3 at noon.
The conference will bring together more than 150 participants representing dozens of community land trusts and partners from across the country, and will focus on stewardship, innovation, and community. Representatives from the CLT Network’s Heritage Lands Initiative will share engaging stories on the role of community land trusts in African-American communities. Advanced practitioners will discuss organizational challenges, financing and foreclosure prevention, municipal partnerships, green building, and transit-oriented development.
At this time of crisis in housing and the economy, participants will also discuss the role of community land trusts in providing stability and permanently affordable housing. One strategy is to allow community land trusts to purchase foreclosed properties, particularly in urban neighborhoods, and make this housing part of a CLT.
Because resale restrictions keep the housing permanently affordable, and because CLTs have very low foreclosure rates themselves, many municipalities including New Bedford, Mass., are considering this approach to neighborhood stabilization, said Rosalind Greenstein, senior fellow and chair of the Department of Economic and Community Development at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
In the community land trust model, buyers purchase homes but not the land the homes sit on, reducing the price. There are nearly 200 CLTs nationally., from Irvine, California to Chicago to Del Ray Beach, Florida.
Other speakers at the conference include David Abromowitz, Goulston Storrs; John Barros, Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative; Jeff Corey, Northern Communities Land Trust; Crystal Fisher, Orange Community Housing and Land Trust; Devika Goetschius, Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County; Carla Robinson, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy; Greg Rosenberg, Madison Area CLT; and Rick Jacobus and John Emmeus Davis, Burlington Associates, co-authors of the recent Lincoln Institute Policy Focus Report, The City-CLT Partnership.
In addition, the CLT conference will be site for a meeting of the National Shared Equity Homeownership coalition a group of national funders, intermediaries, and policy organizations working together to align national practices around housing and community development with the goals of shared equity housing.
Media to attend please contact Anthony Flint at anthony.flint@lincolninst.edu or 617-661-3016 x116. More details and the full agenda available at this registration page.
About the National CLT Network: The purpose of the National Community Land Trust Network is to provide training, advocacy, and resources for our member organizations, which nurture and sustain healthy and economically diverse communities by providing permanently affordable access to land and homes. Community land trusts have existed in the United States since 1969, when New Communities, Inc. formed in Albany, Georgia. The principles and theories that form the foundation of CLTs date back to the 19th century and Henry George. The CLT Network includes 86 member CLTs in 29 states, and continues to increase each month. The Web site is www.cltnetwork.org
About the National CLT Academy: The mission of the National CLT Academy is to provide comprehensive training taught by highly skilled and experienced instructors on the theory and practice of community land trusts. The academy promotes public understanding of the community land trust model, sets a high standard for practitioner competence, and supports research and publication on evolving practices. An array of comprehensive, informative workshops, joint problem-solving exercises, and networking opportunities allow participants to gain experience and knowledge from their peers and from expert trainers.
About the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy:A leading resource for policy makers and practitioners, the Lincoln Institute addresses issues involving the use, regulation and taxation of land. The institute improves the dialogue about urban development, the built environment, and tax policy in the United States and abroad, and includes programs in Latin America and China. Through research, training, conferences, demonstration projects, publications, and multimedia, the Lincoln Institute provides the highest quality, non-partisan analysis and evaluation for today's regulatory, planning, and policy decisions. The Web site is www.lincolninst.edu.
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