In 1969, New Communities Inc., a collective in rural Lee County, Georgia, devised a new way to help Black farmers overcome the forces that excluded them from owning land, such as industrial farming, racial discrimination, and predatory lending: It established the first community land trust. The organization bought property on behalf of community members and sold homes at discounted rates, all while keeping title to the land in trust. Over the years, the CLT model has been adapted to make urban homes more affordable--amidst growing gentrification in the 1980s and during the housing boom of the 1990s.
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- United States of America
