Community land trusts

This dissertation research partners with Klondike Community Land Trust, the largest emerging CLT in the U.S., to examine how CLTs navigate dual challenges: market constraints that limit access to financing systems designed for large-scale developers, and resident distrust rooted in histories of racialized land control. Through participatory action research, Klondike CLT identified "sister CLTs" for national peer learning exchanges. Data from learning circles and 69 interviews across 33 CLTs reveals emergent strategies for establishing resident governance, financing affordable housing development, and rebuilding community trust in contexts of historical displacement.

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.