Community land trusts

This dissertation research partners with Klondike Community Land Trust, the largest emerging CLT in the U.S. (left), to examine how CLTs navigate both market constraints — accessing financing in systems designed for large-scale for-profit developers — and resident distrust rooted in histories of racialized land control. Through a participatory action research (PAR) process, Klondike CLT selected "sister CLTs" to learn from. In peer exchanges and 69 interviews that brought 33 CLTs to identify emergent solutions to establish resident governance, finance housing development, and build trust.

Our next phase of this work, funded by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Reimagining Land Use and Zoning for Health Equity grant, is supporting resident research alongside four emergent CLTs across Memphis. This work is building the capacity of a regional CLT coalition, advancing policy proposals to enable bulk transfers of landbank properties to CLTs, and developing participatory evaluation tools that center resident health and decision-making in shaping neighborhood development. 

Other dimensions of the research with the Klondike CLT include the Klondike Memory Project and the historic restoration of the Tom Lee House.