Community Land Trusts in Detroit: Affordable Housing, Homeownership and Community Development

How can community land trusts help neighborhoods create affordable housing, preserve community assets, and shape their own development? In this episode of The Common Wealth, host Dana Thompson talks with community developer Tricia Talley about her path into community development and her work in Detroit’s North Corktown neighborhood. Tricia shares how her commitment to community-driven development led to her work creating an open space community land trust through the North Corktown Neighborhood Association and, more recently, the North Corktown Housing Community Land Trust, which is creating opportunities for affordable homeownership while preserving affordability for future buyers. Their conversation explores how community land trusts work, why community control of land matters, and how CLTs can be used as a tool to address affordable housing, neighborhood change, and long-term community development in Detroit and beyond. Listen to a conversation about what it takes to move from an idea about community ownership to the practical work of creating institutions that give residents a meaningful role in shaping the future of their neighborhoods.