After years of decline, some Pittsburgh neighborhoods are beginning to see an uptick in popularity, so the city is seeking to protect the existence of affordable housing.
For decades, Pittsburgh has been a city more associated with decline than gentrification, but the city's Lawrenceville neighborhood has seen that tide turn. "It’d already been named a world-class 'hipster neighborhood' in 2014, and home prices have tripled there over the past 15 years," Malcolm Burnley writes in a story for Next City. To make sure that Pittsburgh has the affordable housing in changing times, a group of citizens is coming together to create a community land trust.
A community land trust, or CLT, is a tool used to slow down the forces that push residents out of gentrifying neighborhoods. "Essentially, CLTs are community-controlled nonprofits that acquire parcels of land — either through municipal land banks or other inexpensive means — and maintain them at an affordable price for people in the neighborhood, such as families looking to rent or buy homes at below-market-rate prices, in perpetuity," Brunley explains. While this is the first CLT in Pittsburgh, there are already "250 communities nationwide have a CLT," the article tells us.
FULL STORY: Pittsburgh Ready to Launch City’s First Community Land Trust
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