Lawmakers Are Pushing To Empower Community Land Trusts, But Harsh NYC Reality Stands In The Way
Bisnow
By: Ciara Long
As New York City’s housing affordability crisis grows increasingly urgent, lawmakers are looking at alternative ways to halt displacement. One bill, currently making its way through the New York City Council, would give priority for purchasing city-owned land to Community Land Trusts.
But the legislation has received criticism and pushback, including from within City Hall, even as CLTs have proliferated in other major U.S. cities where low-income residents are facing displacement amid skyrocketing rents.
Experts say NYC’s prohibitive construction costs and byzantine development processes — plus the bill’s proposed process of handing over land controlled by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development — throw the model’s feasibility into doubt without a real funding commitment.
