Community + Land + Trust: Tools for Development without Displacement details the path to failed development and segregated housing taken by Baltimore to date, and offers a new vision for neighborhood control through shared responsibility and shared wealth: publicly financed community land trusts to create permanently affordable housing. 

• Tens of thousands of vacant properties and homes in Baltimore present an ideal opportunity for conversion to Community Land Trusts (CLTs), where communities own land and control its development.  
• CLTs can shepherd the deconstructing, greening, or transforming vacant property into community goods, green spaces and housing.
• Transforming vacant property also presents equally ideal employment opportunities to city residents who struggle with criminal record histories and who can be trained to do the thousands of jobs needed to transform neighborhoods.
• Community-driven housing and community jobs–combined into a single initiative, can increase community wealth and meet human need in marginalized neighborhoods.

The report challenges the City of Baltimore to commit $20 million annually in bonds for jobs–deconstructing, greening, and transforming vacant properties –and $20 million annually in bonds for community land trust housing. This 20/20 Vision for Fair Development is a gamechanger for the human right to housing in Baltimore and across the country.

The report was produced by the Baltimore Housing Roundtable, and co-written by NESRI and the Public Justice Center.

Additional Resources

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