Land Trusts Could Prove Instrumental in Confronting Affordable Housing Shortage

Several city officials and affordable housing advocates say community land trusts (CLTs) could be essential in Detroit's arsenal to combat its affordable housing crisis.

Earlier this year, the Detroit City Council allocated $3.7 million in the city's 2026 fiscal year budget to create a CLT. No further details about its makeup have been released.

According to a Detroit News report, a CLT operates as a nonprofit. The CLT obtains land and leases it to community members for agricultural, commercial, and residential purposes.

In its 2023 report, the nonprofit Detroit Justice Center said that CLT housing carries the benefit of affordability that doesn't expire. This factor makes land trust housing appealing over developments with low-income housing tax credits.

"CLTs do provide one tool in the affordable housing toolbox that solves a lot of problems by simply removing free market pressure from property valuations and rents and the like," said Eric Williams, managing director of the Detroit Justice Center's economic equity practice, in an interview with The Detroit News.

The Detroit Cultivator Community Land Trust has touted itself as Detroit's first CLT. Established in 2020 through gifts of land by North End Christian CDC and its neighbors, the nonprofit now has six acres of land in Detroit's North End for the "permanent benefit and empowerment of the neighborhood," according to a statement on its website.

In addition, the Detroit Land Bank Authority currently owns tens of thousands of properties. According to the Detroit Justice Center report, in 2023, the city had more than $46 million in philanthropic and government funding to benefit affordable housing.