Community Land Trusts (CLTs) are rapidly gaining traction as a strategy for housing justice, community control, and anti-displacement. But long before CLTs entered mainstream policy conversations, residents in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood were already laying the groundwork for an enduring community institution.
In his Metcalf report, “From the Ground Up: History of the Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust,” UBC’s Assistant Professor and BSH researcher Dr. Kuni Kamizaki offers a meticulously documented narrative of how the Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust (PNLT) came into being. Drawing on 27 key informant interviews, two focus groups, and detailed analysis of organizational documents, the report captures the lived experience behind one of Canada’s most compelling CLT stories. Importantly, Kuni writes not only as a scholar but as an early organizer helping to launch the effort—grounding theory in practice.
Read the ReportWhy Community Land Trusts Matter
At their core, CLTs are membership-based, non-profit organizations structured to remove land from the speculative real estate market and steward it democratically for long-term community benefit. They are increasingly being adopted to:
- Build long-term housing affordability
- Prevent displacement and gentrification
- Protect cultural and community spaces
- Advance racial justice, decolonization, and reparative approaches
PNLT’s history offers both a historical record and a practical roadmap for communities considering the CLT model.
Step 1: Creating a Community Land Trust
Find Flexible Funding and Community Champions
Early organizing at PNLT was supported by the Metcalf Foundation’s Opportunities Fund and the Sustainability Internship program. In 2012, this funding allowed a local organization, the Parkdale Activity and Recreation Centre (PARC), to hire Kuni as an intern. PARC was an established organization with a 40-year track record in Parkdale. Having a trusted organization that could hold funding and support early organizing was essential to PNLTs early success.
Why it works: A good idea needs a nurturing place to grow. Finding flexible funding and a community champion that can hold that funding is an important first step to sharing that good idea with the wider community.
Build an “Organization of Organizations”
One of the earliest decisions PNLT made was to form an interim board composed of representatives from major local community-based organizations. This “organization of organizations” model enabled the group to define the CLT’s service area, identify key land acquisition opportunities, and outline who community membership should include.
Why it works: This strategy builds early consensus and shared understanding among trusted local institutions. When it came time to engage broader community members, these organizations were already aligned and could help identify leaders with the experience and insight needed to advance the CLT.
Outreach and Education
PNLT recognized early on that many residents and policymakers didn’t understand how a CLT differed from other non-profit housing models. To build this understanding, they conducted neighbourhood outreach and organized meetings with CLT experts and City officials.
Why it works: Without a clear understanding of what a CLT does, policymakers are unlikely to support the enabling policies that make CLTs viable. Education builds the foundation for both public and institutional support.
Community Visioning
Through active engagement with residents, PNLT also learned that many people felt excluded from traditional planning processes. Emphasizing community control and grassroots democracy helped ensure that PNLT’s mission reflected community needs and aspirations.
Why it works: A CLT must be rooted in the community it serves — and that means centering the voices and priorities of those most directly affected.
Step 2: Building Organizational Capacity
Hire Dedicated Staff
As PNLT evolved, it secured funding to hire its first staff member, Joshua Barndt, who played a central role in building organizational infrastructure. His work included developing a community needs assessment, a strategic plan, and a business plan.
Why it works: Volunteers are essential, but dedicated staff provide continuity and capacity needed to transform organizational vision into action.
Develop a Business Plan
PNLT’s business planning process identified a unique niche: rather than operating housing directly, the trust would focus on owning land and supporting partner organizations through acquisition, financing, and project management.
Why it works: Every CLT has a unique mission. A business plan clarifies what a CLT intends to do and how it will sustain itself operationally and financially.
Create a Culture of Democratic Governance
By 2015, PNLT had built a strong base of community members and held its first democratic elections for a ten-member board. Candidates shared speeches at the Annual General Meeting — a practice that continues today.
Why it works: CLTs typically adopt tri-partite governance, combining residents, broader community members, and public interest or non-profit representatives. This structure ensures that decision-making reflects the full scope of the CLT’s mission.
Develop a Community-Driven Neighbourhood Plan
During this phase, PNLT also received funding to create a community-driven neighbourhood plan, which provided an alternative to the City of Toronto’s focus on South Parkdale as a Neighbourhood Improvement Area. This work mirrors efforts like the Cooper Square Community Land Trust (New York), where community-led planning helped protect neighbourhood character against speculative redevelopment.
Why it works: Alternative neighbourhood plans articulate a community vision grounded in local values and needs. Community-based planning also helps ensure that CLTs are responding to the broader neighbourhood-vision, not just the organizational vision. When a community sees their goals reflected in a CLTs plan they’re more likely to support that plan and get involved.
Learning from Other CLTs
PNLT looked beyond Toronto to understand what was possible. A key example was the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (Boston), which developed a powerful set of policy tools, including:
- Eminent domain authority
- A community-driven master plan
- Community standards for design and development
- A Memorandum of Understanding with the city granting development review authority
These examples helped PNLT imagine policy and governance strategies for Parkdale.
Research, Policy, and Community Ownership
PNLT engaged in community-based research to document the ongoing loss of rooming houses — a type of affordable housing often overlooked by official data. This work helped inform City of Toronto Official Plan Amendment 453, which now requires replacement of demolished dwelling rooms in buildings with six or more units.
Why it works: In policy, what is not counted doesn’t count. Community research makes visible the lived realities that too often remain invisible in planning processes.
From Vision to Acquisition
In 2016, PNLT made its first acquisition: Milky Way Garden, supported by 188 individual donors — a powerful demonstration of community commitment to shared land ownership. (You can see a short video about Milky Way Gardens here.)
In 2019, the trust acquired its first residential building — a 15-unit rooming house — and used lessons from these early projects to support other CLTs and strengthen its own capacity.
Why it works: Acquiring and holding land is central to the CLT model: it secures long-term affordability and ensures that land decisions remain in community hands.
Shaping Enabling Policy
PNLT’s experience with land acquisition also positioned it as a technical resource for both other CLTs and the City of Toronto. In 2021, the city adopted a permanent acquisition program, the Multi-Unit Residential Acquisition (MURA) Program, which supports the purchase of multi-unit residential properties for non-market purposes.
Why it works: As housing becomes increasingly financialized, CLTs offer a proven alternative that centers community stewardship and perpetual affordability. Policies like MURA make it possible for CLTs to scale their impact.
Learn More
Dr. Kamizaki’s From the Ground Up report is rich with further insights into the practical, political, and social nuances of building a successful CLT, and it wouldn’t have been possible without Metcalf Fellowship funding. Learn more about the Metcalf Fellowship program here.
You can also learn more about the Balanced Supply of Housing’s CLT research here, including Kuni’s report on the boarder history of CLTs in Canada.
The Balanced Supply of Housing is a SSHRC-CMHC funded, community-based research project at UBC that focuses on land use and housing financialization across Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal.
