Community Land Trusts in Ontario: Opportunities to Preserve Affordable Housing

Community Land Trusts (CLTs) are a type of shared equity model, offering an innovative alternative in the housing system that is accessible for low-to-moderate income households to access housing ownership, build wealth and equity over time, and contribute to community-wide benefits. This Major Paper intends to explore and discuss the potential of community land trusts in providing and preserving affordable housing stock for Canadian cities, focusing on Toronto specifically. Therefore, this paper will provide an overview of the history of Canadian housing policies, the evolution of CLTs, its advantages and limitations, and opportunities to apply objectives or learnings of land trusts in the process of providing affordable housing. The purpose of this paper is not to suggest community land trusts as the only solution to addressing affordable housing challenges; rather it seeks to amplify information and draw awareness to CLTs as a relevant and emerging topic in housing discourse.