AN ALTERNATIVE TO TRADITIONAL HOMEOWNERSHIP

February 24, 2026

Achieving the “American Dream” of homeownership is increasingly out of reach for many individuals and families. Rising housing costs, elevated interest rates, and an uncertain economic climate have made purchasing a home especially challenging for first-time home buyers.

However, an alternative model of homeownership is gaining momentum: the Community Land Trust (CLT).  Across the country – in both urban and rural communities – people are moving away from the traditional pathways to homeownership by establishing CLTs as a means of ensuring long-term housing affordability.

A CLT is a nonprofit organization that owns, develops, and is custodian of the land and related assets for the long-term benefit of the community. By separating ownership of the land from ownership of the home, CLTs preserve affordability for future generations. Homebuyers purchase the residential structure while leasing the land beneath it from the land trust, ensuring that homes remain accessible to local residents.

Through this model, homeowners can build equity, benefit from lower property taxes, and enjoy the stability of homeownership, while agreeing to resale terms that keep the home affordable for future buyers. CLTs reduce purchase prices for income-qualified households, preserve permanent affordability, provide tax advantages, and help maintain neighborhood diversity.

Here to Stay Community Land Trust has been a leader in developing CLTs in Chicago and is a member of the Chicagoland Owners Land Trust (COLT) Federation. The State of Illinois awarded Here to Stay $5 million to develop 20 units of permanently affordable housing. Proceeds from those sales will be reinvested to create an additional 30 to 40 affordable homeownership opportunities.

With programmatic funding through Chicago’s Department of Housing, CCLF provided a Shared Equity Investment Program sub-grant to Here to Stay for the acquisition of a six-unit condominium building located at 1508 N. Harding Avenue in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. The property will be added to Here to Stay’s land bank and converted into permanently affordable condominium units.

The total project cost is approximately $1.8 million and will result in a fully rehabilitated six-unit building offering six one-bedroom, one-bathroom condominiums. The units will be sold for $150,000 to income-eligible and qualified buyers. Phase II of the project includes redevelopment of a large coach house on the same parcel, creating two duplex units with two to three bedrooms each.

This grant represents CCLF’s second Shared Equity Investment Program award to Here to Stay.

“CCLF is proud to be a part of enacting Here to Stay’s vision by creating affordable homeownership in perpetuity and contributing to the stabilization of neighborhoods like Humbolt Park and Logan Square, which are confronting heightened levels of economic displacement,” said David Feinberg, CCLF Director of Coaching and Knowledge Transfer.