Community land trusts (CLTs) are gaining momentum across Canada as a tool for housing justice, racial equity, and community control of land. But what does it take to build one from the ground up, what tensions emerge along the way, and how does scale impact its transformative intent?

Metcalf Fellow Kuni Kamizaki’s two-part report draws on more than a decade of his involvement with the Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust (PNLT) to tell the story of its origins and evolution, and to explore the broader transformative potential of the CLT model.

Part One – From the Ground Up: History of the Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust
Kamizaki traces the roots of PNLT’s organizing, strategic planning, and policy advocacy, examining how neighbourhood context, history, and institutional and political-economic conditions have enabled — and hindered — PNLT’s development and evolution.

Part Two – Grounding Transformation: Possibilities for Community Land Trusts
Kamizaki explores the transformative potential of CLTs through four interrelated dimensions — political action, community governance, decommodification, and decolonization. Drawing on PNLT’s experience, he analyzes the enabling conditions and structural constraints that influence the pursuit of social transformation and the collective re-imagining of what’s possible.