Community Land Trusts have been kicked around in North Texas for years as an affordable housing option for residents who want to age in place or stay in the community they grew up in. Fort Worth is forging ahead with its new land trust, poised to build and renovate homes on a 15-acre site purchased from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
The City of Fort Worth created its Community Land Trust in June 2023 in partnership with Rainwater Charitable Foundation. A search for an executive director is underway, but the board is already planning to start construction.
Similar to a public-private partnership, a community land trust is a public-community partnership where an individual owns a home, and the CLT owns the land.
More specifically, “The organization purchases, retains, and leases land to those with lower incomes, who can purchase or rent homes on the land at a low cost,” explains Emily Wolf of the Fort Worth Report. “Land trust ground leases typically …