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The Overhead: Community Land Trusts Gaining Ground
Monday, 5 January, 2026
A good news story in recent years is the amount of progress Community Land Trusts (CLTs) have made in communities across the country. New CLTs are being established, and existing ones are winning by-in from various levels of government, as well as buying up land to preserve as affordable housing in perpetuity, sheltering units from the runaway, unaffordable housing market. Often, CLTs preserve often overlooked and stigmatized housing such as rooming houses and single room occupancy hotels. Joshua Barndt is executive director of the Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust (PNLT) in Toronto, one of the first CLTs to rekindle this model in Canada. First, the PNLT was able to acquire property for affordable housing, then the City of Toronto created the Multi-Unit Residential Acquisition program (MURA) to help create CLTs across Toronto. We asked Joshua what is needed to scale up, and out, and replicate for other communities. Norm Leech is the president of the Downtown Eastside Community Land Trust. They're just begging their mission in Vancouver's famously impoverished downtown. Norm tells us how this CLT uses a decolonized governance structure, co-led by Indigenous peoples, and with tenant-led programming. How can we help communities secure affordable housing for their neighbours?
