A Brief History of Portland Community Land Trust

In the late 1990's a diverse group of community members came together out of growing concern for the lack of affordable homeownership

2001 Annual Meeting opportunities in the City of Portland.

While incomes in Portland stagnated (and even fell) throughout the 1990s, housing prices soared. As a result, moderate income households were priced out of the market. In 1997, the National Association of Homebuilders ranked Portland the second least affordable city in the nation (up from 55th in 1991). Rapidly increasing housing prices led to the displacement of many long-term residents in close-in neighborhoods. Many residents were forced to leave the neighborhood that they wanted to live in, or, in some cases, where their families had lived for generations, because they could no longer afford to live there.

Community members and government officials, working together, felt that a Community Land Trust (CLT) would be an appropriate response to these problems because it is a proven, effective tool to:

Help households who have been priced out of the housing market achieve the stability and investment opportunity of homeownership.
Help reduce the rising gentrification in specific Portland neighborhoods.
Create a stock of permanently affordable homes.

Sabin Community Development Corporation was the first organization to use the CLT model in the City of Portland, specifically in inner N/NE Portland. The Sabin pilot project successfully sold ten homes using the land trust model. Because of this success, in 1999 the City of Portland and local housing advocates established Portland Community Land Trust (PCLT) to provide permanently affordable homes citywide.

PCLT was officially incorporated in December of 1999 and staff was hired in the summer of 2000. PCLT now holds in trust the land beneath 65 homes and townhouses throughout the City of Portland.