Coming from agricultural cooperatives, intentional communities, and Garden Cities, the community land trust model is based on the idea of community-controlled land, democratic decision-making, and neighborhood stability. Although the CLT has been primarily used in rural settings, the CLT model can be (and has been) applied in urban spaces to ensure permanent housing affordability.

Since its founding, Charm City Land Trusts has been committed to offering a permanently affordable housing option to residents of the city. Recognizing that parts of Baltimore were undergoing rapid development at the expense of the poor, CCLT sought to begin developing affordable housing options as a way to curb displacement.

Having acquired its first house on the 500 block of North Luzerne Avenue, CCLT will use the Principles of Fair Development to develop this and other properties. By hiring locally and instituting a resale formula that will keep the property affordable, CCLT will ensure that the most vulnerable among us remain protected.

For more information on permanent affordability, the Baltimore housing market, and solutions to the urban traumas of redlining, racist development, and speculation, please read the Baltimore Housing Roundtable report, Community + Land + Trust: Tools for Development without Displacement.