Community land Trust-Based Renovation: Aligning sustainability with social protection and community empowerment
As the housing crisis continues to intensify across Europe, the production of additional affordable housing is more important than ever. However, building new homes is often in conflict with sustainability goals such as achieving a climate-neutral building stock and nature preservation.
Article written by Michael Neaves, Former advocacy and communications manager at European Community Land Trust Network, and by Dali Malnoury, Project assistant for the Upcycling Trust project, Community Land Trust Brussels. Contribution for Build Better Lives.
To address this, EU policymakers should use the forthcoming European Affordable Housing Plan to underpin new sustainability requirements of the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), now being transposed to National legislation, with equity and affordability using new policy reforms and initiatives that will channel necessary public and private investments into homebuilding and renovation.
However, many existing policy instruments that aim to encourage owners to renovate their homes and make them energy efficient do not reach the poorest households, and lack of guarantees to protect them from the potential adverse impacts of making our homes increasingly sustainable exacerbates the need for social safeguards.
For example, in cities like Brussels, close to 40% of owners do not have the means to finance the works in anticipation of the subsidies and have difficulties with the administrative procedures to ask for support and subsidies.
Without a Just Transition, the danger is that vulnerable households will be forced out of their homes, facing increasing energy prices and financial sanctions meant to incentivise renovation, and confronting Europe with a wave of “renovictions”, in turn worsening the housing crisis in other ways. Policymakers and practitioners should hence prioritise mechanisms that strengthen ownership and tenancy rights across all contexts.
CLT-based renovation: a vehicle for sustainability with built-in social safeguards
Enter the Upcycling Trust project which aims to apply the Community Land Trust (CLT) model to existing buildings facing the dual challenges outlined above to explore how the combination of (1) a circular renovation approach and (2) the decommodification of housing can lead to more structurally sustainable and affordable cities.
How? The CLT model offers an innovative, hybrid form of ownership that empowers communities and citizens to ensure housing remains affordable for generations to come. While CLTs are already well established across Europe, they have mainly focused on new construction. Yet, prioritising the use of existing buildings over constructing new ones would unlock the potential of effectively redistributing, utilising, and managing built spaces as a valuable resource—an opportunity that has largely remained underutilised.
In the context of the Upcycling Trust project, CLTs in Cork, Ghent, Lille, Rennes, and Brussels are now testing a new upcycling strategy applied to renovation in which homes are improved to meet new sustainability requirements, while in turn owners regain housing security, in exchange for land and homes enlisting themselves into the CLT movement. In practice, this means that homes receive social, legal, organisational, technical, and financial support throughout the entire renovation process, similar to the services offered by One Stop Shops. This inclusive approach aligns with the objectives of the Renovation Wave, promoting sustainability through permanently affordable housing, governed by capped pricing mechanisms, social criteria for sale and rental, and local support to ensure that renovations benefit the most vulnerable.
The project will pilot these measures across the different participating CLT groups, benefitting approximately 150 families who will in the future live in these homes. As a consequence of the innovative actions being undertaken by the Upcycling Trust, the benefits of social safeguards applied by the CLT model in the context of energy renovation for vulnerable households will become evident. In short, CLT-based renovation has the great advantage of helping the most vulnerable, and providing a solution to the parts of the existing building stock where the problems are greatest. Moreover, this approach increases the supply of permanently affordable housing without cutting undeveloped land.
While not a complete solution for Europe’s dual challenges in the area of housing, inspiration can be taken from the principles adopted by the Upcycling Trust project to inspire the development of suitable social and financial packages for households across Europe to benefit from.
By giving community land trusts a role in climate policy and converting private ownership to non-speculative community ownership, part of the housing market can be structurally reformed. If done on a large scale, this could play a central role in making our cities more liveable while remaining affordable.
For more information on how Community Land Trusts can help enable a Just Transition in your country, region, city, or town, please contact the European Community Land Trust Network europe@cltb.be, or any partners of the Upcycling Trust project: geert.depauw@cltb.be (Brussels CLT), cclt.upcyclingtrust@soa.ie (Cork CLT), jbdebrandt@mairie-lille.fr (Lille), l.tabourin@rennesmetropole.fr (Rennes).