Help Somerville CLT Build Communities That Last!

 
 

The Somerville Community Land Trust (SCLT) is not just building housing—we're building the foundation for something deeper: long-term community ownership and stability in a city where that’s becoming harder to find.

In a market that moves fast and rewards profit over people, longtime Somerville residents are being displaced by rising rents, luxury development, and speculative land grabs. Too often, those most impacted—immigrants, working-class families, artists—are left with no control over the future of their homes or neighborhoods.

SCLT is flipping the script. We believe communities deserve to not just live in the building, but to own the land it's built on. We’re not just creating affordable housing—we take land off the market and place it under permanent community ownership, ensuring that homes stay affordable and residents have a voice for generations to come. That’s the power of a community land trust. This isn’t a short-term fix. This is infrastructure for the long haul. While others race to the top, we’re anchoring our city’s foundation in justice, equity, and community power.

Your Donation Makes This Possible

Your support builds more than housing. It builds power. It builds community. It invests in an equitable future. 

The pulley works when someone pulls. Your donation provides the force — the essential action that makes this work possible. When you give you promote neighborhood stability by helping us keep housing permanently affordable and under community ownership, protected from speculation.

When you give, you help for example:

  • Hire environmental specialists before buying property such as 297 Medford St.—a former autobody site which will host a 100% affordable building with up to 60 apartments—to make sure the land is environmentally safe to build and live on.

  • Fund healthy and safe homes for community-owned property such as 12 Pleasant Ave, a 130-year-old rental building we will rehab existing residents purchase their units at affordable prices-ensuring their long-term stability.

  • Engage and empower community members through organizing, public events, and accessible education—training leaders, building capacity, and strengthening our community-led model in the process.

Help us build what private developers won’t: affordable homes that last on land that’s shared, and a future rooted in equity and democracy.

 
 

  • In Somerville’s early days, hand-powered pulleys were everywhere. They lifted lumber for three-deckers, raised beams in the city’s brick mills, and powered elevators in the factories where generations of working families made their living.

    A pulley doesn’t do the lifting alone.
    It’s a simple tool that, when applied wisely, amplifies human effort — turning small actions into great movement.

    We work every day to lift up our neighbors, one home, one block, one community at a time.

    A Small Force, Applied Wisely, Can Lift Great Weight

    In a city where real estate prices soar and displacement pulls families apart, it’s easy to feel like the problem is too heavy to solve.

    But just like pulleys helped build this city once, we can build a new future — together.

    SCLT takes land off the speculative market and develops permanently affordable housing, rooted in community, not profit.

    We organize residents, advocate for equity, and design systems that keep people in their homes — not just this year, but for generations.

Thank you to our sustaining monthly donors who support our mission and vision by raising over $15,000 per year! A $25 per month donation is suggested but even as little as $5 or $10 per month is a huge help to support our work.

Help support the Somerville Community Land Trust's efforts to address Somerville's affordable housing crisis. Your donation will help us acquire property, get the word out about our efforts, build coalitions with other like-minded organizations in Somerville and Greater Boston, and maintain our technical infrastructure.

Somerville Community Land Trust is a 501(c)(3) organization, EIN 83-4461699. All donations to SCLT are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. No goods or services were provided in exchange for your donation.