SCHICC Conference: Community Land Trusts Building Common Ground Across Europe
As part of the Interreg SHICC programme, the European CLT Movement organised an online EU policy event on December 4 to take stock of the emergence of a European CLT Movement and its relevance to the EU policy agenda. Acknowledging the need to encourage and support initiatives for adequate housing, this event promoted stronger political engagement from European stakeholders to support CLTs, encouraging them to collaborate and coordinate their efforts to foster the rise of the CLT Movement in Europe.
Today, we are at a turning point where we need to scale up the model in order to achieve systematic impacts and address the current housing crisis. This is why the CLT Movement asks for improved knowledge and recognition, adapted regulations at the local, national and EU level, as well as sustainable funding.
Since the 2000s, the Community Land Trust (CLT) Movement has grown from a handful to more than 170 urban CLTs created or under creation in Europe; with an objective of 500 urban CLTs, 7,000 homes for 21,000 people housed over the next years.
CLTs have proven a viable model that provides permanently affordable housing and fosters participation. They have demonstrated tremendous resilience thanks to their strong sense of community are needed now more than ever in this arduous period of pandemic.
