What is the LA Chinatown Community Land Trust?
洛杉磯華埠社區土地信託是什麼?

In Chinatown, luxury apartments are being built every year while older apartment buildings are being sold to corporate landlords. The community has lost countless community businesses including markets, restaurants, and small retail shops. And throughout this change, corporate landlords are evicting working class residential and commercial tenants for more profit. The LA Chinatown Community Land Trust (CLT) preserves affordable housing and the cultural fabric of our community while promoting neighborhood stability. We ensure that working class community members are able to stay in the community and not be displaced by new development.

唐人街每年都有新建豪華公寓，同時老公寓卻被出售給建商，導致這個社區失去了無數商家，包括市場、餐廳和小零售店。然後建商為了利潤，不斷驅離工人階級的居民和商業租戶。洛杉磯華埠社區土地信託保護社區的廉價住房和文化基因，同時促進鄰里的穩定。我們確保工人階級居民能長期留在社區而不被新建設驅離

Community Land Trust (CLT) in a Nutshell

A Community Land Trust (CLT) develops, manages, and/or preserves land for a community. It is one of many tools to fight for economic and racial justice, including equitable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Takes property out of the speculative market in high-cost gentrifying market areas.

  • A long-term solution for preventing displacement and gentrification in our communities that are increasingly becoming more unaffordable. 

  • Provide security and stability for low-and moderate-income families

  • CLTs typically maintain permanent community ownership of land.

  • Land in a CLT can be used for many things other than housing, such as agriculture, commercial, community gardens.

CLTs are governed by a non-profit board of local residents, community residents and public representatives that provide lasting community assets and shared equity homeownership opportunities for families and communities.

  • A family or individual may purchase a house or unit that sits on land owned by the CLT at below-market price in a long-term lease (often 99-year) that is renewable and/or inheritable.

  • Multi-family buildings are typically leased to a cooperative, and residents own a share of the building, along with the right to occupy their unit. 

  • Homeowners are tasked with paying for improvements and maintaining the structures, and also have the opportunity to build equity through appreciation of its value.

  • The homeowners agree to sell the home at a restricted price based on a resale formula that keep it affordable in perpetuity, regardless of rising housing prices.

  • CLT boards raise money through donations, fundraising, and grants, and use that money to purchase land that's held "in trust" on behalf of a community.

  • New units come into a CLT in a number of ways: the community land trust may develop them, partner with a developer, convert existing houses through a buyer’s choice program, or serve as a preservation purchaser of multi-unit buildings.