CLT Course Catalog

DOWNLOADABLE CLT COURSE BROCHURE

Introduction to Community Land Trusts (CLT 101)

This course offers a comprehensive introduction to the nuts and bolts of creating a community land trust: How are CLTs structured and governed? How do they operate? And why are so many communities turning to CLTs as their preferred strategy for community development and affordable housing? Participants will learn how local CLTs seek to balance the seemingly competing goals of providing income-eligible homeowners with a fair return on their housing investment while ensuring that housing is kept affordable for future homebuyers of modest means. The course is specifically designed to provide tools and resources for people who are new to the model and who are considering establishing a CLT in their own community.
Albuquerque, New Mexico: November 2010
Los Angeles, CA: February 2011
Detroit, MI:  May 2011

CLT 201

This intermediate-level course offers two days of training, primarily for CLT staff and board members. A comprehensive array of presentations, workshops, and joint problem solving exercises examines the roots and rationale of the CLT, compares ground leasing to deed covenants, considers the use of CLTs in developing cooperatives and condominiums, explores nonresidential applications of the CLT, and discusses how CLTs frame their message and measure success. Prior familiarity with the CLT model is presumed and completion of assigned readings before the training is required. These readings are sent to participants three weeks before the training.
Albuquerque, New Mexico: November 2010

Stewardship

The contractual controls that a CLT imposes on the homes in its portfolio are not self-enforcing. They require the continuing presence of a watchful steward to monitor and enforce them, ensuring that: (1) the affordability of these homes will be preserved; (2) the quality, durability, and livability of these homes will be maintained; and (3) the homeowners’ security of tenure will be protected, making foreclosure a rare event. In this one-day intermediate-level course, participants will review the contractual mandates, the organizational mechanisms, and homeowner services that make stewardship a reality. The course is focused on the period after a resale-restricted home is sold, although some consideration will be given to the steward’s pre-purchase responsibilities.
Albuquerque, New Mexico: November 2010
Los Angeles, CA: February 2011
Detroit, MI:  May 2011

CLT Organizational Growth and Sustainability

CLTs too often define their mission and stake their claim with words like “permanent” and “forever” without developing realistic plans for the long-term fiscal viability of their organizations. How do CLTs plan financially for the critically important work they do in their communities – not only next year and the year after that, but in 10, 20, even 50 years from now? What is the connection between role and scale in determining the cost of operating a CLT and the ability of a CLT to generate the revenue needed to cover its costs? At what point might financial self-sufficiency become a reality, at least insofar as paying for the CLT’s basic stewardship functions? This course will provide an opportunity for participants to explore issues and options in planning effectively for the long-term fiscal health of their organizations.
Albuquerque, New Mexico: November 2010

The New CLT Model Ground Lease

The CLT Model Ground Lease has served as a cornerstone of the CLT movement for nearly 30 years. In 2010, the CLT Academy will complete work on the first major revision to the model ground lease in nearly a decade. This course will provide a detailed overview of the model ground lease, with an emphasis on newly revised sections.
Albuquerque, New Mexico: November 2010

Financing CLT Homes

Participants will explore various ways of structuring public subsidies so as neither to interfere with the private financing of CLT homes nor to undermine the CLT’s stewardship of land and preservation of affordability. Participants will examine mortgage financing options for CLT homebuyers and learn how to negotiate with banks to secure terms that protect both the borrower and the CLT. Prerequisites for the course include a familiarity with sections of The CLT Manual and the model CLT ground lease that pertain to the financing of resale-restricted, owner-occupied housing on leased land. Participants must also have a working knowledge of housing finance, gained through an introductory level CLT training or through direct involvement with a CLT homeownership program.
Los Angeles, CA: February 2011

The City-CLT Partnership: Municipal Support for Community Land Trusts

Participants will learn about the key elements of the City-CLT relationship identifying common pitfalls and best practices from throughout the country. Participants will examine the challenges that arise when local governments choose to support community land trusts and the most effective ways that local governments have found to help CLTs to grow and develop. Participants will also review essential aspects of a negotiation between a CLT and a local government.
TBD, 2011

Designing Resale Formulas and Managing Resales

Participants will learn how to evaluate the pros and cons of various resale formulas for the purpose of either designing a new formula or amending an existing formula in order to better meet a community’s needs and priorities. Participants will also examine options, policies, and procedures for managing the resale of CLT homes over the long haul. Participants in this course must be familiar with the model CLT ground lease and must have a working knowledge of resale formulas and resale procedures that are commonly employed by CLTs.
TBD, 2011

Introduction to Permanently Affordable Homeownership

Shared equity housing is a creative way to assist in stabilizing communities severely affected by the foreclosure crisis. Community land trusts, limited equity cooperatives, deed-restricted houses and condominiums are models where the rights, responsibilities, risks, and rewards of homeownership are shared between the individuals who own and occupy this housing and an organizational entity that stands behind the home long after it is sold. These models ensure that homes remain affordable to persons of modest means on a long-term basis by restricting the amount of equity that homeowners may remove from their homes on resale. In this introductory course, participants will review the most common models of shared equity homeownership, weighing the pros and cons of each.
TBD, 2011