Elevation Community Land Trust

A collaborative of philanthropic funders that includes Gary Community Investments, The Colorado Health Foundation, Bohemian Foundation, Gates Family Foundation, The Denver Foundation, Mile High United Way and Northern Trust have partnered to catalyze nearly $25 million in private investment to launch Elevation Community Land Trust, a new community land trust (CLT) that will foster stewardship of permanently affordable housing in neighborhoods across metro Denver and ultimately statewide. Rather than being concentrated in a single neighborhood, Elevation CLT will use a “scattered site model” that has the flexibility to scale to any community at risk of gentrification and displacement. To further support low-income families in the communities it serves, Elevation CLT eventually aims to align itself with comprehensive supportive services programs that provide residents with increased access to health care and healthy food, early childhood education, workforce training and placement, and wealth-building opportunities. It will complement other affordable housing efforts being undertaken by public and private organizations at the local and state levels. Although the majority of initial capital raised is from the private sector, Elevation CLT is being established as a public-private partnership that will rely on capital subsidies and resources from a mix of sources, including the public sector. Elevation CLT is in active discussions with the City and County of Denver as the first Colorado municipality to partner in this effort, and it looks forward to exploring partnership opportunities with other municipalities across the metro region in the future. Urban Land Conservancy (ULC), a nonprofit hybrid CLT that is aligned with Elevation CLT’s mission, will incubate this new platform and provide the technical assistance needed to steward its successful establishment. Over the next 12 to 18 months, ULC and an interim community advisory committee will support Elevation CLT in establishing its own 501(c)3 community land trust organization with independent leadership, staff and a governing board that includes homeowners, community members, public interest representatives and members of the funder collaborative. Within the next five years, Elevation CLT’s stewardship will support the creation of more than 700 CLT homes via the acquisition of single-family homes in neighborhoods across metro Denver and land for the development of new construction townhomes and condos. At this scale, Elevation CLT will be financially sustainable within its first five years, and it has the power to become a new platform that can be leveraged to support communities across Colorado.