Op-Ed: Community Land Trusts are the future of affordable housing

All Salt Lake City residents know the housing market here is inaccessible. Home prices in Utah are 46% higher than the national average, and the median price is over $500,000. According to a survey by Freddie Mac, one in three Gen Z adults say homeownership at any point in their lives is out of reach. Additionally, with interest rates rising, the number of current renter households that can afford to purchase housing is decreasing. Homeownership is about as American as apple pie. It is the cornerstone of the American dream, and, unfortunately for many Americans, it is a dream that is becoming increasingly out of reach.

More than just feeding into the mythology of our nation, homeownership is crucial for economic development and community building. Homeowners are more likely to vote, maintain and improve their homes, and participate in social organizations. Those are clear individual and collective benefits of homeownership that are being withheld due to the increasingly high barriers to entry, and we need to find new and creative ways to ensure residents can afford to buy homes.

Enter community land trusts.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, a community land trust (or CLT) is a community-based nonprofit that ensures affordable housing by taking land off the open market and leasing it to residents who own the housing on the land. This allows the home to be much more affordable than a traditional home but provides many of the same benefits of home ownership. CLT homeowners own stable housing, build equity, and are free to modify their homes. And when the time comes, they can sell their homes – albeit with limits on the list price to ensure affordability for the next buyer.

Detractors argue that CLTs don’t present the same investment value as traditional homeownership since the home is not allowed to be sold on the open market. While it is true that when reselling a CLT home, the sale price will be considerably lower than a traditional home, that does not mean it prevents homeowners from building equity and improving their financial standing. Research has found that initial investment in purchasing a CLT home is 58% of the asset poverty level at the time of purchase, meaning these homes are affordable even for some of the least financially well-off residents. CLT homes provide a means of building wealth for someone who makes less than the area median income who would otherwise have no choice but to rent their home.

CLT Homes can make homeownership more accessible to those making below area median income and homeownership has been shown to benefit individuals and their communities. So why don’t we see more CLT homes available? The simple answer is that acquiring land isn’t cheap.

For a CLT to acquire property, it first needs to pay market rates for the land. Current CLTs in Salt Lake City are faced with the same problems as CLTs across the nation: there is too much demand and not enough supply. Even for the opportunity to purchase a CLT in Salt Lake, you will need to join a waitlist that has an undetermined wait time.

While more CLT housing alone won’t entirely solve our housing crisis, it will help with the economic and community development of our neighborhoods and keep property out of the hands of corporate landlords that operate to squeeze as much rent out of residents as possible. It’s time for the city to recognize the benefits of CLTs and allocate more funding to expand community land trusts in the city.

Ryan Hunter is a graduate student in City and Metro Planning at the University of Utah. This op-ed was produced as part of a collaboration between that department and The West View.