Houston Land Banks and Community Land Trusts

Author(s): Center for Community Progress

Under the leadership of Mayor Turner, the City of Houston is recovering, reimagining, and rebuilding in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. As disaster recovery efforts continue, there is a steadfast desire to make Houston a stronger, more resilient city in which no neighborhood is left behind. City leaders are meeting the challenge with a clear commitment to invest both in neighborhoods that have been devastated by the hurricane, as well as those neighborhoods that have been compromised by decades of disinvestment and lack of opportunity.

The very nature of rebuilding demands an understanding of the past, respect for the present, and hope for the future. With the resources of stakeholders like the Houston Land Bank, more neighborhoods could transform vacant, abandoned, and damaged properties into housing opportunities and ensure there is a sufficient inventory of quality and affordable housing for generations to come.

Land banks and community land trusts serve different yet complementary goals in supporting equitable neighborhood development. The Houston Land Bank operates as a public entity, a local government corporation that focuses its efforts on acquiring and assembling tax-delinquent properties for redevelopment. The emerging Houston CLT will be a private nonprofit that holds land in trust to provide affordable housing and other community assets in perpetuity.

In this report, we share a case study of a land bank and CLT partnership in Albany, New York and key considerations for moving forward.