We’ve recently seen an immensely damaging housing bubble that was built on speculation suddenly burst, with disastrous results not just for our national economy, but for individual homeowners and renters. Homes that are needed by working families are too often priced beyond their reach–or pried from their grasp–by dramatic rises and falls in real estate prices. The Community Land Trust Reader shows us there is a more equitable way of keeping land-based resources available, affordable, and secure for people who need them the most.

John Emmeus Davis is partner and cofounder of Burlington Associates in Community Development, a national consulting cooperative specializing in the development of policies and programs promoting permanently affordable, owner-occupied housing. He was a visiting fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy from 2007 to 2009.