Shared equity, shared strength: Community land trusts and resilience in hurricane-prone regions of the United States

The community land trust model – in which residents own their homes but share ownership of the land beneath them as part of a non-profit entity run by trust residents, stakeholders, and residents of the larger community in part to ensure affordability in perpetuity – is not a new one in the United States. But it is still a relatively infrequently used instrument for offering long-term housing affordability and a number of other potential benefits such as homeownership education, community networking, and personal economic growth.

As cities, especially those prone to natural disasters such as hurricanes, seek to build social and economic resilience, they will need to use all of the tools available to them. The community land trust is one such tool, but its usefulness in the context of disasters is somewhat understudied at this moment. Closing this gap in knowledge could help cities better understand the ways in which and the extent to which land trust functionality impacts resilience. Using a case study strategy based on qualitative research and analysis of primary source interviews and a variety of secondary source documents, this thesis seeks to assess links between the functionality of community land trusts and social and economic resilience in the context of hurricane recovery in the southeastern United States.

The cases – the Florida Keys Community Land Trust, Houston Community Land Trust, and North Gulfport Community Land Trust – were chosen for their geographic location, vulnerability to hurricanes, comparable ages, sizes and demographic makeups and other factors both in common and unique that would make a comparison logical and of research value. Functionality of each trust was assessed based on their capacity to offer allocation of land and housing, control of governance, flexibility of use and property rights, exchange of ownership and use, and continuity both of the trust itself and of the affordability and stability of its homes and community. Social resilience was measured as community engagement, while economic resilience was analyzed as affordability and access to housing.

While a conclusive assessment of the direct links between community land trust functionality and community social and economic resilience in hurricane-prone communities is beyond the scope of this research, several useful conclusions can be drawn that have relevance to the academic and public policy realms.

Based on the cases assessed, there appear to be substantial links between land trust functionality components such as allocation of housing and resilience components such as engagement, affordability and access. This suggests that the land trust model may indeed support social and economic resilience when successfully implemented, although the specifics of these effects inevitably vary depending on the contest of the larger community. As such, community land trusts merit further study as resilience-building tools, particularly in the context of disaster recovery.