How a San Francisco Land Trust is Preserving Affordable Housing for Artists

A Bay Area nonprofit is using the community land trust model to secure permanently affordable, community-owned housing and studios for artists. According to an article by Eliana Perozo in Next City, Artist Space Trust uses the same strategies as other land trusts to acquire properties that can be rented to people working in the arts industry at affordable rates.

In an interview with Next City, AST director Meg Shiffler said “We’ve accumulated $10 million in properties that have been bequeathed to us. Our model is built on mutual aid, not exclusively, but at the core of what we’re doing is building a portfolio through mutual aid.” All of the donors are artists themselves, says Shiffler, who were able to buy property at a time when it was much more affordable.

Despite the challenges of building capacity and finding funding, Shiffler says AST is growing and hopes to become a national model for community land trusts for creative workers. “I think we can become a powerful national advocacy and awareness group around artist housing. We have to prove that it’s successful and that we can change local policy here in California first.”