Community land trust homeowners: Past and present housing experiences

Abstract

Recent developments in the United States housing market suggest that shared-equity homeownership models, such as community land trusts (CLT), can provide a more sustainable path to homeownership for low-income individuals. This study used a qualitative, biographical approach to examine the experiences of 20 CLT homeowners from CLT organizations in two metropolitan areas in the southeastern United States. CLT homeownership offered a path from successful renter into CLT homeownership for the low-income participants in the study. The experiences include comments of the participants before and after becoming homeowners. Many of the participants entered homeownership later in life. Participants reported that they were able to make progress following financial setbacks from job loss, divorce, and health problems. © 2014 American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences.