Brenda Torpy and the Community Land Trust Model

In this episode, we talk with Brenda Torpy who championed a type of affordable land ownership model called a Community Land Trust. She started with the Champlain Housing Trust in Burlington, Vermont in the USA over 35 years ago when she worked in the office of Mayor Bernie Sanders. Today there are now over 260 CLTs in the United States and over 300 in England and Wales. The Champlain Housing Trust is the largest Community Land Trust in the world with 3,000 homes of all types throughout northwestern Vermont serving people experiencing homelessness, homes for people with special needs, affordable apartments for the working class, and a pioneering shared equity home-ownership program that removes financial hurdles for buyers while creating housing that is permanently affordable.