Catskills Community Land Trust: Building Affordable Housing in the Town of Rockland

Imagine an affordable rental home constructed with local timber, local workforce, and with cutting edge green technology – built by and for the community. That is what the Catskills Community Land Trust is hoping to bring to Livingston Manor.

Since the 1960s, community land trusts have become a tool to build shared equity to preserve affordable housing, farmland, and waterways. There are more than 220 land trusts in the United States, with dozens that have been established in New York State. The Catskills Community Land Trust’s mission is to hold and develop land as a shared asset to build and preserve affordable homes.

Radio Catskill’s Kimberly Izar spoke to the Trust’s advisory committee members, Gwen Schantz and Bruce Pollock, about its vision to build a two-family affordable home in Sullivan County.

Image: Two individuals canoeing (Photo Credit: Land Trust Alliance, a nonprofit focused on land conservation across America)