Reinventing Real Estate: The Community Land Trust As a Social Invention in Affordable Housing. (September 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Meehan, James
• Is Part Of: Journal of applied social science. Volume 8:Number 2(2014:Sep.)
• Page Start: 113
• Page End: 133
• Publication Date: 2014-09
• Subjects: change -- community action research -- housing -- nonprofits -- regional development -- urban; Applied sociology -- Periodicals; Clinical sociology -- Periodicals; Social service -- United States -- Periodicals; 360
• DOI: 10.1177/1936724413497480
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1936-7244

Abstract

The community land trust (CLT) is a social invention designed to solve several problems in land ownership, from affordability to preservation. This article traces the history of the CLT from concept to implementation, through a network of theorists and activists, and discusses the present extent of CLTs in the United States. It concludes with a case study of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI), a community development organization in Boston, that has used the CLT model as part of its holistic strategy to redevelop a neighborhood that has suffered from redlining, arson, and abandonment. DSNI is perhaps the only community organization in the United States to have attained the power of eminent domain to acquire land for housing development.