The People’s Community Land Trust

Three organizations– the Housing Justice League, The Guild, and the American Friends Service Committee–came together in 2021 when a local landlord was threatening to evict a woman from the home she’d lived in for 30 years, so that he could remodel and sell her home for profit in a rapidly gentrifying area. When it became clear that there were no pathways to keeping the woman in her home, the Guild purchased a home in the People’s Town neighborhood of Atlanta, where that woman now lives. This was the first home in the People’s Community Land Trust, which is managed by all three organizations. Three years later, the PCLT purchased a second property–a multi-family building with eight units. The organization is continuing to take shape and stabilize. Currently, their efforts are focused on securing enough funding to hire an executive director so that they can increase organizational capacity and expand their operations. They also continue to conduct outreach in the Atlanta area to grow awareness of and support for the CLT. The Housing Justice League has a large base, so the CLT is conducting presentations at HJL’s membership meetings about the community land trust. They’re also going to be creating a working group of members that can help with activities related to the CLT. The three organizations have also held block parties and teach-ins where they engage community members with the CLT.