Responsive, Resilient & Replicable: Making the Case for a Community Land Trust in Holyoke, MA

This thesis explores a nontraditional approach to affordable housing development in Holyoke, Massachusetts, through the design of an urban community land trust. A shared equity housing model present in the United States since the middle of the twentieth century, the community land trust provides a framework for permanently affordable homeownership through the limiting of resale values and the oversight of a landholding nonprofit. Shared equity homeownership models flip the script on traditional development, limiting the profitability of real estate transactions—both for the developer and sale by future owners—and in so doing, they allow families with limited financial resources to begin building equity in homes that they can afford. The city of Holyoke has a mixed history with the community land trust (CLT) model, having experienced the rise and fall of one, the Holyoke Community Land Trust, between 1990 and 2020. This thesis seeks to understand and overcome the challenges faced in the past, asking, “What does a successful community land trust look like for Holyoke?” Massachusetts is a national leader in affordable housing policy, but the state’s recent legislative efforts predominantly target the construction of rental housing and offer many fewer opportunities for homeownership (Mass.gov 2024). This thesis offers an alternative development strategy for Holyoke’s Churchill neighborhood. While homeownership is by no means a silver bullet for creating community, generating wealth among low-income families, or preventing resident displacement, it is both a recognized mechanism for building financial equity in the United States and a powerful means for increasing social capital and stability within a neighborhood (Manturuk, Lindblad & Quercia 2010). To that end, the CLT model is positioned to accelerate this latter process by concentrating resources within its service area. Governed by a board of diverse stakeholders, the CLT nonprofit can provide its member residents, as well as the surrounding neighborhood, with access to educational opportunities, community-organizing events, and initiatives that build local resilience. Employing a CLT housing model, this thesis leverages a multidisciplinary web of research to create a proposal for infill housing and community infrastructure design that is responsive, resilient, and replicable for the city of Holyoke.