Review of The Community Land Trust Reader in JAPA

At the end of 2006, the foreclosure crisis became a major issue and contributed to a rise in community land trusts (CLTs). “CLTs were almost alone in reporting few defaults and even fewer foreclosures” (p. 28). A CLT is an organization, usually a nonprofit, created to hold land for the benefit of a community. The CLT offers lifetime leases that may be transferred to leaseholders’ heirs if they to continue to use the land. While leaseholders do not actually own the land they live on, they typically own the buildings and other improvements on the land. The Community Land Trust Reader, edited by John Emmeus Davis, Dean of the Community Land Trust Academy, is comprised of 45 previously published articles and 36 contributors, with one article written by Davis. (Space limitations prevent my listing individual authors.) This compilation helped me understand why, over the last 40 years, CLTs have become an increasingly accepted strategy for promoting permanent affordable housing ownership.