Housing is a fundamental human need and human right. However, any hope that housing can be a profit-making commodity and still meet human needs has been exposed as a fantasy by COVID-19. One-third of the nation’s households—30 to 40 million—were estimated to be at risk of eviction during the crisis.

But our national housing crisis is so much more than just one terrible year. This problem has been devastating lives for decades, hitting households who are of extremely low income (ELI) the very hardest, with Black, Indigenous, or persons of color facing the brunt of the hardship. They are more likely than white households to occupy the ELI sector and live on the edge of eviction. No matter their race, ELI households are forced to pay a disproportionate share of their income on rent. Seven out of 10 of the 10.8 million renter households in that sector pay more than half of their incomes on rent. And the dearth of available housing compounds the problem. For each 100 ELI renters, only 37 affordable and available homes exist.

But these households need not live on the edge. There exist already proven housing models that provide housing security: community-controlled housing. In addition to public housing and government-subsidized housing vouchers, community-controlled housing, which involves community land ownership combined with rental, cooperative, or homeownership housing can provide stability amidst economic disruptions.

Yet, none of these models get as much public subsidy as privately owned housing. While homeowners enjoy significant subsidies through the mortgage interest deduction, government housing assistance for the ELI sector has been seen both as politically and practically unfeasible.

But this report shows it can change. Community activism is forging new models to provide and finance secure, long-term affordable housing to those who need it most.

The most common model of community-controlled housing utilizes a Community Land Trust (CLT) as the landowner. The trust keeps housing affordable through a ground lease that sets resale prices and gives the trust the right of first purchase. It is governed democratically by those who reside on CLT land, those living nearby, and various professional and organizational stakeholders. This community and resident control changes its operating culture. As its primary mission is housing, not profit or speculation, community-controlled housing is the means to permanent affordability and housing security.

ELI housing is challenging enough in a housing system that relies primarily on profit incentives. Adding community land ownership makes it more challenging, as the institutions, public policies, and gatekeepers that currently dominate housing development finance are more familiar with private ownership. The CLT model, where private and collective ownership can co-exist on the same plot of land requires education, legal support, and financial hand-holding.

Grassroots activists and community organizers nationwide are taking on those challenges, leading a new surge of interest in CLT housing, particularly for those households at ELI levels.

This report is a resource for them and the CLTs to which they connect. It provides a short education on each of the three stages of housing development, outlining the interconnectivity of each stage and the dynamics that lead to the creation of housing that is called “affordable,” yet unreachable for ELI households.

The biggest challenge for ELI housing is the operations stage, as these costs are usually covered by rents and ELI rents must be keep low to be affordable. But operations costs are also impacted by the amount of debt incurred in the construction/rehabilitation stage that needs repayment. If debt is used to cover property acquisition/pre-development, it can create a domino effect as successive stages need to cover debt incurred in prior ones.