SFCLT is a majority women and BIPOC-led organization creating affordable housing opportunities in San Francisco using the Community Land Trust and preservation models. We partner with tenants and organizers to take housing off the speculative market forever. We ensure that San Franciscans – people of color, artists, educators, service workers, seniors, families – can afford to stay and thrive.
At SFCLT, we make it possible for San Franciscans to stay in their city. By creating permanently affordable, community-owned housing, we’re keeping the heart of this city right where it belongs.
San Francisco Community Land Trust (SFCLT) was founded in 2003 with a simple but transformative idea:
Housing should serve people, not profits.
Housing should serve
people, not profits.
The San Francisco Community Land Trust was founded in 2003, at a moment when San Francisco was being rapidly reshaped by the dot-com boom and the displacement it accelerated. A group of tenant organizers, housing advocates, and community leaders from a long legacy of organizing came together after witnessing longtime neighbors pushed out of the city. When the dot-com bust followed, SFCLT saw a chance to intervene directly in the market and stop displacement as it was happening.
SFCLT helped pioneer a preservation and community ownership model focused on buying at-risk buildings and keeping people in their homes — not someday, but immediately. This work helped inform the creation of San Francisco’s Small Sites Program, the first of its kind in the country, allowing SFCLT and other nonprofits to take hundreds of homes off the private market and into community hands.
The impact of this work is focused on supporting at-risk residents.
In 2009, SFCLT completed its first acquisition at 53 Columbus Avenue, preserving homes for a 100% Chinese immigrant, Cantonese-speaking community after years of tenant organizing to stop demolition. Since then, SFCLT’s most significant victories have been led by tenants organizing to protect their homes.
That legacy continues today.
SFCLT stewards 174 permanently affordable homes for more than 300 residents, 70% of whom are people of color. Working alongside tenant organizers, we turn organizing victories into long-term housing preservation, moving buildings out of speculation and into permanent community ownership.
Through initiatives like the CLT Capacity Collaborative, Bay Area Preservation Finance Table, and Capacity Catalyst Program, SFCLT leads a network of organizations building collective capacity for community land trusts across Northern California.
Our model is both local and systemic — protecting families block by block, while advancing a model of social housing that treats homes as a human right.
SFCLT founded to
fight displacement
and build community
ownership in San
Francisco.
First acquisition:
Columbus United
Cooperative in San
Francisco’s Chinatown
neighborhood.
Major growth
with creation of the
Small Sites Program;
10 new acquisitions.
Leadership transition
and restructuring;
organization maintains
key properties despite
limited resources.
Renewal under
full-time leadership,
staff expansion, and
improved partnership
with MOHCD.
Transformational
MacKenzie Scott
investment allows
SFCLT to strengthen
infrastructure and
expand reach.
Launch of the
CLT Capacity Collaborative
and Bay Area Preservation
Finance Table to support
emerging CLTs in
the Bay Area.
SFCLT celebrates first new acquisitions since 2021 — 285 Turk, 1130 Filbert, 3975 24th Street, and 320 14th Street — each preserving affordability, resident control, and neighborhood stability across San Francisco.
Pilot of Capacity Catalyst
Program to provide technical
assistance to CLTs.
SFCLT leads a growing
movement for permanent
affordability and resident
power, proving that
community land trusts are
the future of housing
justice in California.
2003 – SFCLT founded to fight displacement and build community ownership in San Francisco.
2009 – First acquisition: Columbus United Cooperative in San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood.
2011 / 2016 – Major growth with creation of the Small Sites Program; 10 new acquisitions.
2017 / 2021 – Leadership transition and restructuring; organization maintains key properties despite limited resources.
2021 – Renewal under full-time leadership, staff expansion, and improved partnership with MOHCD.
2023 – Transformational MacKenzie Scott investment allows SFCLT to strengthen infrastructure and expand reach.
2023 (cont.) – Launch of the CLT Capacity Collaborative and Bay Area Preservation Finance Table to support emerging CLTs in the Bay Area.
2024 – SFCLT celebrates new acquisitions since 2021 — 285 Turk, 1130 Filbert, 3975 24th Street, and 320 14th Street — each preserving affordability, resident control, and neighborhood stability across San Francisco.
2026 – Pilot of Capacity Catalyst Program to provide technical assistance to CLTs.
Today – SFCLT leads a growing movement for permanent affordability and resident power, proving that community land trusts are the future of housing justice in California.
SFCLT’s next chapter builds on 20 years of organizing, preservation, and innovation.
We are deepening our partnerships, expanding across the Bay Area, and advancing a statewide vision for social housing rooted in equity, permanence, and collective ownership.