Kingston Community Land Trust
Organization Type: Social & Community ServicesAddress: 540 Montreal Street, Kingston, Ontario K7M 7E7
Contact: Patrick Palmer
The goal of a community land trust is to acquire property, and provide affordable housing for the community in which they are established. We do that by pooling, grants, donations, and private loans to buy residential buildings at market value and hold them in a trust for the long term benefit of the community.
The long term community benefit is secured through land lease agreements and democratic governance of the Land Trust as a non-profit. Think of it like a co-op for the entire City of Kingston. A co-op that you are entitled to membership in by virtue of being someone who lives, or works in the City of Kingston. Members vote on the election of board members, acquisitions, allocation of funds, and the initiation of community projects.
The community land trust model is flexible meaning that we can mold it to bring the largest benefit to the Kingston community. Whether we want to provide affordable high-quality rentals to the students and low income residents of the City, or open up new avenues to homeownership in the City the community land trust model has been proven to reduce the cost of housing in the areas they operate in.
We are still in the startup phase, so if you are interested in helping craft the vision and path of this new not-for-profit reach out! We are looking for:
- Volunteers
- Board Members
- Community Organizations
- Passionate Students
- Experts in the Community