Gertrude Brown Community Land Trust
We are housed and unhoused people seeking to build housing and own it collectively to end displacement and ensure stability.
What is a land trust?
A Community Land Trust (CLT) is a nonprofit organization that acquires and holds land for the benefit of the community. It separates the ownership of land from the ownership of buildings on the land, ensuring that the land remains a shared community resource forever. This approach enables communities to have a say in how the land is used and to create long-term solutions for affordable housing, sustainable development, and community initiatives.
Why do we need a land trust for unhoused people?
Minneapolis’s current approach to homelessness is an abusive system of shelters, costly and traumatic evictions of encampments, piecemeal resources and long waiting lists for public housing.
The land trust is a housing first approach. This means that potential residents would not be required to be sober, have a job, or meet other requirements that would be a barrier to getting housing.
What services do exist for unhoused people often are limited in scope such as temporary emergency beds or job training without housing. All of these options will be ineffective because they are designed by people who have never experienced homelessness and do not understand the needs of unhoused people.
Our plan for housing people as quickly and affordably as possible
Encampments around Minneapolis, the United States, and the world have proven that people can house themselves quickly and inexpensively. Now to make it legal and stable, better and more beautiful, and all that unhoused people have dreamt of. Starting more modestly, our plan includes:
Private, individual housing units under the control of the person or people living in each.
Shared community building for socializing, cooking, bathrooms, and showers
People living on the land make all the key decisions about their community.
Common outdoor green space, including garden and trees.
We plan to make use of intentional community cluster development zoning in Minneapolis.
