Emerging housing policies. Affordable housing and urban property

Abstract

Access to housing is a main challenge for contemporary urban policies. Community Land Trusts encounter a growing interest as ways to ensure affordable housing. They are based on three elements: the disjunction of land ownership from the enjoyment of housing; the limitation of the rent; the tripartite governance involving residents, the local community, and public stakeholders. CLT represents – not public nor private - housing policies aiming to ensure the right to the city for medium and low-income people and minorities. In France, a similar institution directly inspired to CLT, the Organisme de Foncier Solidaire (OFS), was included in the urban code in 2014 and many major cities have supported its development for avoiding middle-class suburbanization. This paper analyses the genesis and circulation of CLT between US and Europe, especially focusing on the French OFS. Both American and French solutions represent innovative policies characterized by a performative use of property aiming to reverse exclusivity and to contrast the urban rent promoting social access. Despite recurrent references to the CLT, OFS does not promote community participation actually seeking the contrast of real estate speculation and the control of public funds more than the general politicization of affordable housing as urban commons.