About Us

We’re a Community Land Trust (CLT) committed to stewarding and expanding permanently affordable community owned and governed land.

We are The Northern California Land Trust

Community Land Trusts (CLTs) acquire, maintain, and permanently own the land underneath housing to ensure long-term affordability of housing. Via long-term ground leases, CLTs disentangle the ownership of land from the ownership of housing.

This insulates housing from the impacts of market speculation, allowing for housing to remain permanently affordable.

About the CLT Model

  • Apple blossoms hanging on a branch with a blue house blurred in the background

    CLTs provide opportunities for households with low to moderate incomes (LMI) to build equity through homeownership.

  • Resident smiling, showcasing CLT Option to Purchase and Occupancy Agreement sign.

    CLTs partner with LMI households to avert the negative impacts of speculation and gentrification.

  • Table with food and umbrella in the foreground with people gathered in a circle in the background

    CLTs support communities of LMI households through stewardship activities and a range of community-focused programming.

Our Mission

NCLT is a Community Land Trust (CLT) that incubates and nurtures permanently affordable communities. NCLT uses community ownership and control of the land in order to provide affordable homes and community facilities in perpetuity.

Our Vision

We believe that community-based ownership and co-stewardship of land and homes in the Bay Area helps transform housing from a commodity to a building block of local community autonomy and agency. NCLT envisions a world where everyone has secure, sustainable, healthy, and affordable places to live and the opportunity to thrive.

Our History

Founded in 1973, at the intersection of the Civil Rights, nonviolence, and CLT movements, NCLT’s early founders sought to remove land from the speculative market and place it in a perpetual trust for the common good. Since then NCLT has collaborated to expand the CLT movement and led in the development of cooperative and community ownership models.

Illustration of people collaborating on a farm with the message “Land is life... Let's share it."

NCLT formed in 1973 to reduce land speculation, provide easier land access to people with low income, and promote wise land use. Its first property, New Life Farm, was acquired in 1977. NCLT also began working to support a community in East Palo Alto to form a local CLT in 1978.

Blue corner house surrounded by greenery, with a crowd observing from the street

NCLT acquired, oversaw rehab construction, and conducted leasing and sales for three multi-family buildings, three cooperatives, one single family home and one condominium project. It also began to support SF community members to create SFCLT.

Group photo of CACLTN members in front of a yellow peace sign, busy street, and lake.

Despite the housing market crash and a chapter 11 reorganization, NCLT continued robust organizing to expand the CLT movement through local and state levels, including the co-creation of the state-wide California Community Land Trust Network (CACLTN).

Residential house with vibrant surroundings and multiple mailboxes on the front porch

NCLT partnered with RCD on the development of University Ave Housing Coop; purchased its first urban property and commercial space at 3120 Shattuck Avenue; and partnered with residents to purchase its first urban residential project, Peace Gardens.

Two side-by-side residential houses with front porch stairs, plants, and trees in the surroundings

The early 2000s included the successful completion and sale of 18 condominiums at 4 separate properties, a collaboration with several CLTs across the country to form the National CLT Network, as well as construction on an ambitious project at the collapse of the housing market.

NCLT began the decade with a rapid collaborative response to the COVID-19 pandemic, supporting over 3,000 local and statewide residents to avoid displacement while building its incubations program, and scaling operations to develop Woolsey Gardens, its largest project to date.

Tan shingled two-story building with plants and trees
NCLT resident board member leading a tour on community owned land

SUPPORT THE MOVEMENT

Empowering Communities

Your contribution to NCLT will fuel the Community Land Trust movement and expand the sustainable development of affordable housing on community owned land.