Our work takes place on Darug & Gungungurra Country. We pay our respects to the Elders in our community who continue to fight for the health and wellbeing of Country and Community. Always Was, Always Will be Aboriginal Land.
What is a CLT?
A Community Land Trust (CLT) is a way for people to share ownership of land and housing, keeping it affordable for the future. In this system, the CLT holds title to the land, and the building on that land is owned (or rented for a long time) by an individual household.
CLT’s bring a whole of environment approach to housing where our our ability to be safely and securely housed is seen to be key to our health and wellbeing. From an First Nations perspective, connection to Country and Kin are critical to health and wellbeing so access to secure housing as a critical part of the ability of stay health and connected.
Source: Diagram adapted from Reimagining
Indigenous Housing,
Health and Wealth:
The Necessary Ecological Response to
Unlock the Potential in the Indigenous Estate by Kerry Arabena, Chris Holland & Shane Hamilton
What do CLT’s do?
CLT’s provide secure and affordable housing options for low to moderate income earners priced out of their local community. They do this by embedding perpetually affordable housing into local neighbourhoods providing pathways out of subsided housing models for low income earners while also addressing the speculative pressures impacting housing affordability. CLT’s once operational, remove the need for government subsidies and provide a greater variety of affordable housing options for more people over time.
How do CLT’s work?
CLT’s act as long-term stewards of land, housing and other assets, ensuring they remain permanently affordable.
CLT’s do this by removing the cost of land from the cost of housing and paying this value forward to the future residents through restrictions on resale. The affordability of each CLT home is paid forward to each new tenant by capping the re-sale of any CLT home at a reasonable rate above the initial purchase price. Improvements made to the home by the occupant can add value, but the home is not sold at a price based on the local market value. If someone is renting a CLT home, rents are calculated based on 30% of a household income and are not determined based on comparable mainstream market rents.
Land & Construction
With exponentially rising house prices, the cost of land rather than the house or the cost of construction is the main driver of housing unaffordability (see table below). So by removing the cost of land from the cost of housing, affordability under the CLT model is achievable, and can be assured for future generations. Finding low or no cost land is crucial to the success of CLTs which takes a whole-of-community effort and the help of key partners.What are the benefits of the CLT model?
There are many benefits of CLT’s that have been proven against a variety of measures. These substantial findings point to the ability of CLT’s to meet a range of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and do far more than just housing. A report from the European CLT Network outlines the striking benefits of CLT’s that can:
- create 89% more sustainably designed buildings
- create a 71% reduction in resource extraction
- produce 75% less greenhouse gas emissions
- enhance biodiversity by 61%
- have 75% more efficient use of land,
- stimulate sustainable innovation by 82%
- create an 86% increase in support for environmental sustainability
- create increased environmental awareness among residents (64%) and among policy makers (82%)
(Statistics from the European CLT Network)
Governance & Leadership
CLTs are not-for-profit organisations open to anyone in their geographic area. They use a tri-parte governance structure that shares leadership equally between residents of CLT homes (1/3), local community members (1/3), and a team of advisors or experts appointed by the other members (1/3). This tri-parte structure has been proven internationally to provide long term stabilty for CLT’s and strong and stable governance. CLT’s are characterised by active voting memberships that include, but are not limited to residents of the CLT’s homes.CLT’s are based on the idea that locals know their own needs and how to activate their community’s resources. And we believe that Traditional Owner leadership on matters related to their land is critical to a just transition and to our collective wellbeing. Blue Mountains Community Land Trust is unique in that we are working to establish a governance model that ensures Darug and Gundungurra Traditional Owners and local Elders have a voice in what happens on their Country and have the ability to be self-determined in the location and design of their housing.
Land Stewardship
In the spirit of an Aboriginal land ethic CLTs steward land for the collective benefit of community and Country working against individual ownership models that exclude the most vulnerable and drive up housing prices. As a culturally appropriate form of ownership CLT’s can also facilitate the re-matriation of land for Traditional Owners and become a vehicle for the self-determination of safe, secure, and affordable housing that is community controlled and governed.
“CLTs reimagine the fundamental components of land and housing to offer a proven solution to common challenges we face in achieving a just transition: affordable housing, development that respects planetary boundaries and agency through the central participation of low-income residents.”
Source: European CLT Network