Are community land trusts a viable solution to housing crises and gentrification in America’s big cities?

Written by Josh Lorenzo

Housing is becoming more and more costly, and the working-class is being given the short end of the stick. Let's face it – current housing policies put profits over people. Millions of people are severely rent-burdened, meaning they spend over half their income on rent. A significant amount of them spend over 80% of their income on rent. Millions more have 30%-49% of their income going towards paying rent.

An untold amount of people live in poor housing conditions, including a lack of sanitation and overcrowding. Hundreds of thousands of people, including tens of thousands of children, are homeless in cities where architecture is becoming more anti-homeless. These issues disproportionately affect racial minorities, especially African and Latinx Americans. And the COVID-19 pandemic has only further exposed how deep these inequalities run.