Supporting Community Land Trusts through technical assistance program

Community land trusts have a long-standing tradition in the United States and the United Kingdom. They have grown rapidly in those 2 countries over the past 2 decades. While there have been community land trusts in Canada since the 1980s, their adoption has been slow. In the past 10 years, however, land trusts are becoming more popular across Canada and more are being developed.

The Canadian Network of Community Land Trust’s Technical Assistance Program demonstration will support the healthy growth of Canada’s land trust sector. It will document and share community land trust best practices and it will provide assistance to support developing trusts. Its overall goal is to grow, amplify and consolidate the collaboration of community land trusts on a national scale.

Project scope and expected outcomes

A surge in new Canadian community land trusts over the past decade

Community land trusts are non-profit corporations created to acquire and hold land for a community. The land is perpetually held in trust to help provide access for community uses, such as affordable housing. Land trusts are membership-based organizations, governed by an elected board of directors. They are often made of community members and non-profit organizations.

Canadian community land trust development has surged over the past decade in response to the ongoing loss of affordable housing in Canadian cities. At the same time, older land trusts are building momentum, generating replicable results and effective practices to document and share. Other organizations are interested in starting community land trusts and need guidance.

The Canadian Network of Community Land Trusts (CNCLT) is a network of over 20 land trusts. It was established in 2017 to support new community land trusts and tap into the knowledge, resources and tools of existing organizations. Since then, it has organized regular peer-to-peer networking meetings, knowledge exchanges and webinars. This demonstration project will create a technical assistance program that will help organizations to grow and support their ongoing collaboration.

Supporting the healthy growth of the community land trust sector and helping to magnify its impact

With support from the National Housing Strategy Demonstrations Initiative, this project will establish the CNCLT Technical Assistance Program. This program will support the community land trust sector’s healthy growth and help to amplify its efforts. This includes documenting and sharing the best land trust organization and growth strategies and supporting trusts at all stages of their development. Its goal is to grow the community land trust sector’s effectiveness and collaboration at the national level.

Supporting community land trusts and growing the sector as a whole will help this approach produce and preserve housing affordability across Canada. The Technical Assistance Program will do the following:

• Provide technical assistance to community land trusts undertaking growth initiatives. This includes providing start-up advice, strategic planning, business planning, feasibility studies and development consulting.
• Create communications materials for national distribution about land trust models and their benefits.
• Increase access to tools and best practices resources related to land trust development.
• Promote peer networking and knowledge sharing through CNCLT meetings and annual gatherings.
• Offer professional development opportunities to build staff expertise, including community land trust-focused webinars.

Organizing and coordinating implementation of the 5 technical assistance components

New and established Canadian community land trusts at all stages of development will participate in the project. The partners will collaborate to develop shared visions, principles and priorities, establish an advisory committee and launch the project. The advisory committee will hire technical consultants and a network coordinator, who will conduct a needs assessment study. This will help document existing and emerging priorities among member land trusts and inform program planning.

Once the project’s infrastructure is established, the project coordinator will organize and coordinate the implementation of a technical assistance program. This program will be grounded in equity-based, anti-racist and decolonization approaches to land trust development and housing.

The network coordinator will create a case study based on the project’s documentation and evaluation. This will be shared through a webinar, existing CNCLT social media networks and targeted outreach with housing sector stakeholders.

Strengthening the community land trust infrastructure and knowledge base in Canada

The technical assistance program will strengthen the community land trust infrastructure and knowledge base in Canada. This will help increase the community-led acquisition, preservation and production of long-term affordable housing. Documenting and sharing best practices and resources will also increase awareness in Canada about land trusts and their benefits.

In the short-term, the program will increase the resources and support available for community land trusts at all different stages of development. Housing policy-makers will also have improved access to information about how land trusts work in real-world settings. This will help inform policy dialogues and development to support further adoption and growth of land trusts.

Over the longer term, community land trusts will develop an increased capacity for acquiring and managing assets. This is an urgent priority for the community housing sector. It will help address the dispersal of assets within the sector and aging housing stock that needs renewal. These are both key to the sustainability and effectiveness of the Canadian affordable housing sector.