Residents of Kentucky neighborhood secure land for affordable housing

Residents of Smoketown, a historically Black neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky, formed a community land trust to prevent investors from pricing long-term residents out of their homes.

Nachand Trabue noticed a rise in real estate investors buying up vacant lots and parks in 2019. In response, she began removing investor signs and worked with the city's land bank and local developers to explore community ownership models.

Local residents and a group of older neighbors pushed the city to conduct a housing needs assessment. They collaborated with Grounded Solutions, a national nonprofit, to establish a community land trust. This model allows a nonprofit to own the land while selling or renting the houses on top of it, ensuring the properties remain affordable for future residents. The community won a city grant of $2.1 million in 2020 to fund the project.

Theresa Boyd now serves as the executive director of the Smoketown Community Land Trust. The trust completed its first seven houses and has already selected seven more plots for development. The city and its land bank earmarked approximately 70 plots in the neighborhood for the trust to prevent them from being sold to private speculators. The organization holds meetings with neighbors to address concerns and ensure the community has a say in the development process.