Building Non-market Housing Through Community Land Trust and Credit Union Partnerships

Expensive development, property acquisitions, and operational costs have made it challenging for CLTs to find the necessary finances to establish themselves or scale up. As member-owned institutions that have traditionally served underbanked communities and that have access to large amounts of capital, credit unions have the potential to help CLTs finance new affordable housing projects. Drawing on interviews with key informants from three CLT and credit union partnerships from across Canada, common narratives are extracted. A gap analysis is then conducted to identify gaps in the current state of CLT financing opportunities. The findings suggest that although credit unions play a versatile role within the affordable housing sector, the level of impact they have is limited. Even with improved services from credit unions, CLTs still require a range of financing options from additional partners like local and federal governments, as well as private benefactors.