Greensboro’s community land trust slated to debut next year as need for affordable homeownership grows

Last year, the city of Greensboro started exploring the idea of creating a community land trust. As the city continues to combat mounting affordable housing challenges, a community land trust would offer more opportunities for homeownership and keep homes reasonably priced for generations to come. 

A community land trust is typically organized as a nonprofit organization and is governed by local residents and public representatives; Greensboro’s model would be like this. A community land trust acquires land and property, sets a price and provides supportive services to the buyer. A 99-year lease is then offered to the buyer and the community land trust maintains ownership of the land. If the owner wants to sell, the community land trust sets a new — and still affordable — sales price, while the previous owner recovers their original investment and gains some equity. The idea to create a community land trust in Greensboro came out of Housing GSO, a 10-year plan created by the city’s Housing and Neighborhood Development Department and approved by city council in October 2020.

According to the city’s website, their community land trust is set to launch in late spring or early summer in 2025. The initiative may involve 8-12 real estate parcels at first, primarily focused in East Greensboro and other areas targeted for reinvestment or redevelopment.

The city needed assistance getting their community land trust started, so they contracted  with Grounded Solutions Network of Oakland, CA, a nonprofit started in 2016 that has had success partnering with more than 170 local governments and nonprofits across the country, and is in the business of helping craft the framework for blossoming community land trusts.

Pioneered by Black farmers in Georgia in 1969, community land trusts grew in popularity throughout the decades. Today, there are more than 200 community land trusts nationwide offering thousands of affordable units. As Greensboro works to develop a community land trust, it follows in the footsteps of other North Carolina cities such as Charlotte, Durham and Wilmington that have been running their models for years.

Greensboro’s community land trust development has been divided into three phases, which included outreach with 10 in-person public meetings and four virtual meetings in 2023-24. According to the city, more than 100 residents participated. They also created an eight-member advisory committee; members are Phil Barnhill, Sohnie Black, Dayna Carr, Jarney Mavis Lowdermilk, Demetrius Ponder, Kim Priddy, Tiara Woodard and Avila Xiadani.

According to a July 2 email sent by the city’s Neighborhood Impact Manager Troy Powell to city leaders, Phase II has concluded and they are now entering Phase III, which will involve creating the community land trust’s organizational structure. 

Over the next 12-18 months, staff will develop policy recommendations, a fiscal framework, 1–5 year budget forecasting and creation of by-laws. They also will develop and adopt a formal business plan for the organization which will “establish where and how the CLT will function.…” Staff will also need to identify funding sources and operational support resources. Powell stated that during Phase III, they will continue to work with the advisory committee on the program design, launch and support areas to create the community land trust. 

As they move through this process, Powell wrote, they will set up training sessions with area lenders and community leaders, and “again engage the neighborhoods with public meetings.”

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