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National Community Land Trust Network Announces Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland as
the
Host of the
2013 National Community Land Trust Conference
CLEVELAND, OH – November 1, 2011 - Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland and the National Community Land Trust Network announced that Cleveland, Ohio was chosen as the location of the 2013 National Community Land Trust Network Conference.
The national conference is a convening of over 250 leading community land trust practitioners from across the country to share best practices, to attend classes and seminars that are relevant and impactful and to exchange new ideas that help communities to solve challenges and to identify opportunities. Community land trusts bring people together to create local solutions to regional challenges. “Convening the 2013 national conference in Cleveland is great opportunity for the Network, NHS of Greater Cleveland and the surrounding communities. CLTs from across the country will learn about the challenges facing a city that has a significant issue of vacant and abandoned properties, while also celebrating the extraordinary work of Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland and their partners,” Roger Lewis, Executive Director of the National CLT Network.
The current economic stagnation, the shift to a low carbon economy and the re-structuring of the financial markets pose significant challenges and opportunities for communities. CLTs are helping communities to address these challenges by building equitable and sustainable solutions. Over the past few decades CLTs have helped to expand access to affordable, quality housing, the hallmark of Community Land Trust efforts. Community stewardship of the land has been and continues to be central to CLT performance. At a time of great instability in conventional housing markets, CLT stewardship efforts have resulted in a foreclosure rate ten times lower than the national average. Rooted in fairness, shared prosperity, and opportunity, CLTs across the country are building strong, sustainable communities where diversity can thrive and people of modest means can succeed today and tomorrow.
There are over 240 Community Land Trust organizations in the United States and many more in the United Kingdom, Belgium and Australia. The Network is committed to helping communities, especially communities devastated by foreclosure and job loss, to work with their local CLTs or to help develop Community Land Trust organizations that not only address these challenges, but help them to thrive. The purposes of a Community Land Trust are to provide access to land and housing to people who are otherwise denied access; to increase long-term community control of neighborhood resources; to empower residents through involvement and participation in the organization; and to preserve the affordability of housing permanently. The CLT approach to ownership is a balanced one : the nonprofit trust owns the land and leases it for a nominal fee to individuals who own the buildings on the land. As the home is truly their own, it provides the homeowners with the same permanence and security as a conventional buyer, and they can use the land in the same way as any other homeowner. The homeowners benefit from both a lower purchase price and the support of the land trust during their tenure and the affordable home is sold to another family in need.
“We’re excited that Cleveland was chosen especially after our recent merger with the Community Land Trust of Greater Cleveland”, stated Lou Tisler, Executive Director of NHSGC. “To be able to showcase a national model that has opportunity to change the landscape for affordable housing in northeast Ohio, is only one of the advantages of hosting the conference. Bringing a core of over 240 committed community land trust practitioners to our city, highlighting our successes and challenges, will create a critical mass of innovative thinking and solutions. To join cities such as Albuquerque, New Mexico (2010), Seattle, Washington (2011), and Burlington, Vermont (2012) demonstrates the commitment of the National Community Land Trust to northeast Ohio.”
For more information about community land trusts, past conferences and the 2012 conference in Burlington, VT please go to www.cltnetwork.org. For more information about Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland, go to www.nhscleveland.org .
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To find out more about our homeownership initiatives, please visit www.nhscleveland.org or call 216.458.HOME (4663).
