The Douglass Community Land Trust (Douglass CLT) is a nonprofit membership organization centered around racial and economic equity that was created to prevent displacement of current and future residents, create community-held assets, and build assets for individuals and families, while ensuring decision-making resides within the community. Fundamentally, Douglass CLT aims to make DC an equitable place where everyone can stay and thrive – and specifically low-income, black and brown residents who have contributed to making DC the thriving community it has become but have not benefitted from the economic prosperity in nearly the same proportion as their white counterparts. Douglass CLT drives toward this equity by securing lasting affordability of rental and ownership housing, as well as local small business, through community ownership of land and collective stewardship.

Douglass Community Land Trust or “Douglass CLT” is named after Frederick Douglass, an iconic resident of Anacostia and famed statesman, writer, orator, and abolitionist who was himself formerly enslaved. Douglass CLT is not affiliated with any private development entity. The name also reflects the name chosen for the 51st state of the US, as our mission is to serve the entire “Douglass Commonwealth” (DC).

Anyone who has an affiliation with the District of Columbia and agrees with the mission and values of DouglassCLT may become a member, who will then receive updates on the organization’s activity, opportunities to volunteer and promote the organization’s goals, and vote and run in annual elections. Learn more about membership & how to join HERE.

Community land trusts (CLTs) are nonprofit organizations governed by a board of community members, including CLT residents and public representatives, that address the need for affordable spaces while ensuring that the affordable units governed by the land trust will be maintained at an affordable price. CLTs can provide lasting community assets, along with shared equity homeownership opportunities, rental housing, locations for small businesses, cultural institutions, farms and more, that remain affordable for generations. This is done by guaranteeing low, stable cost of real estate, as well as post-purchase stewardship for lessee members. The location and population the land trust serves usually determines how it operates — CLTs can operate as independent nonprofits, as a part of a larger nonprofit, or as part of a local government. Douglass CLT chose to be an independent organization, after a period of incubation by sponsoring nonprofits, so there would be no restrictions on who could be part of the governance of the organization and to ensure decisions would be made by community members.

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CLTs were developed during the Civil Rights movement to allow individuals to exercise their right to vote in a deeply racist environment, and are used today to fight the displacement of minority communities that follow years of disinvestment. As Tony Picket, the Executive Director of Grounded Solutions Network eloquently summarizes for Urban Institute’s ‘Housing Matters’:

“The CLT model was intentionally created and first implemented during the late 1960s by African American leaders in rural Albany, Georgia, who were responding to the harsh reality of oppression, violence, and eviction endured by Black tenant farmers across the American South. The historic roots of the CLT model are intimately linked with the goals of the national civil rights movement: supporting African American families to own and control land, achieve greater economic security, and fully exercise their legal voting rights without obstruction. Today’s model is based on nonprofit organizations serving as the vehicles for collective community ownership of land, governed by a board of directors, including community resident representation. Modern CLT organizations are part of a broader shared-equity housing sector typically developing, selling, and stewarding affordable homes that provide security and stability for low- and moderate-income families. A 2019 study of shared equity housing performance includes evidence that CLT homes (which comprised 73 percent of the over 4,000 homes analyzed) significantly contribute to family wealth creation and are increasingly serving families of color, with the potential to narrow the racial wealth gap.”

https://housingmatters.urban.org/articles/how-community-land-trusts-can-advance-racial-and-economic-justice

The primary way CLTs secure lasting affordability is to separate ownership of the land from the buildings atop the land. The CLT takes title to the land and issues a Land Lease back to the owner of the buildings (this can be housing, commercial space for small businesses and nonprofits, etc.) that incorporates a covenant to ensure lasting affordability for low-income persons. In situations where is it not feasible to separate ownership of the land, CLTs can employ other legal mechanisms to retain affordability in perpetuity and community control, notably a Deed Restricted Affordability Covenant. In all cases, CLTs provide ongoing stewardship. Douglass CLT uses a Pay-It-Forward model, balancing wealth creation and affordability for each generation of residents.

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Yes! Homeowners are never asked to share the money they’ve paid down on their mortgage; building equity by paying down the loan is a critical component in a CLT household’s wealth building. What CLT homeowners do is forgo a portion of the speculative increase in the market, which is spurred by gentrification.

CLTs use a Resale Formula, built into the Land Lease and outlined in the Permanent Affordability Covenant, to determine the maximum price for which a CLT property owner can sell the house. This Resale Formula is designed to provide a fair amount of wealth creation for the selling household/ owner while at the same time keeping the spaces affordable for subsequent buyers/occupants. Subsidy initially invested in CLT properties is retained over time, serving generations of homeowners and occupants without requiring increasing subsidies at each successive sale to keep them affordable. This formula, which provides growth in equity without allowing home prices to balloon, is how the home can be made affordable for the next purchaser – what we call “Pay-It-Forward.”

We use the term “-It-Forward” to keep our focus on serving more than one generation of families/ households that lives in a CLT home (or operates a local business, etc.) over the years, and how that impacts the community as a whole. Rather than take all the appreciated value with them when they leave, each owner chooses to leave part of that increased value in the property, so a family like theirs can benefit from it in the future. That household, family, business, owners, etc. is paying it forward – or providing the same opportunity to benefit – to the next owner/occupant as they had.

Stewardship is about securing the CLT community’s physical assets and building the assets of those within the community. It’s what we call the suite of services provided to ensure the properties in the CLT are well-maintained and remain affordable for many generations of occupants – and the services that help the individual residents/ occupants thrive.  This can include homeownership education and maintenance workshops for individual homeowners, and post-purchase technical support for multi-family buildings that cover asset management, physical maintenance, proper governance, grant applications, and collective purchasing opportunities. We use this term to remind ourselves that each property in the land trust doesn’t just belong to just one person or company, but is a community asset that is our responsibility to maintain.