Justice through a Commons-Based Approach to Land
Past, Present, and Future of Community Land Trusts
Community Land Trusts session at ISHF 2025
When: Thursday 5 June, 2025 - 11:00-12:45
Where: International Social Housing Festival - The Convention Centre Dublin
In an era marked by housing crises, extractive land markets, and growing inequality, communities across the globe are reclaiming the commons.
At the 2025 International Social Housing Festival in Dublin, Ireland (June 4–6), the European Community Land Trust Network will host a 105-minute seminar in partnership with the International Center for Community Land Trusts that features real stories from CLTs in Europe and the US, tracing the movement’s origins in the Civil Rights era to its role today as a tool for justice, shaped from the ground up as it is applied in new contexts. This session will tell the story of a commons-based land approach that has empowered communities from the earliest days of the CLT movement to today’s new frontiers. It will spotlight CLTs not just as a technical strategy, but as a powerful tool for place-based justice.
The International Center for CLTs will set the stage with a historical grounding, linking the CLT model to the US Civil Rights Movement. Then, panelists from across Europe will share firsthand stories of organizing, partnership, and persistence—from London to Barcelona to Cork. These narratives will highlight how communities are using the CLT approach to counter disinvestment, over-tourism, energy injustice, and structural exclusion. Through their stories, panelists will discuss justice, community power, and the democratic practices that ensure meaningful practice of these values – now and in the future of the CLT movement. The European CLT Network will close the session with a reflection on how to grow the movement in Europe without losing the bottom-up ethos that makes it transformative.
Audience members will also have the chance to engage directly with speakers during a live Q&A. This is more than a seminar—it’s a gathering of movement-builders shaping the future of housing justice.
Hosted by the European CLT Network in partnership with the International Center for Community Land Trusts, this session will feature real stories from CLTs in Europe and the US, tracing the movement’s origins in the Civil Rights era to its role today as a tool for justice, shaped from the ground up as it is applied in new contexts.
Moderated by Brenda Torpy, Co-President for the International Center for CLTs and Lead Consultant for TA\CHT at Champlain Housing Trust, panelists include:
Juliet Can, Board Member, European CLT Network & London CLT
Adrià Garcia i Mateu, Board Member, European CLT Network; Member, La Borda Housing Cooperative; Member, Solidarity Economy Network of Catalonia (XES)
Dr. Eve Olney, Member, Cork CLT Steering Committee; Co-founder, Living Commons and Radical Institute
Panelists’ perspectives will be rooted within a European-wide vision for building equitable, sustainable communities true to the CLT movement’s foundational strengths by Keti Tskitishvili, Director of the European CLT Network.
The session will close with an open Q&A.
Meet the Speakers
-
Board Member, European CLT Network & London CLT
Juliet Can is a Londoner, a resident of London CLT, and a dedicated board member of both London CLT and the European CLT Network. Her journey into community-led housing is rooted in her passion for equitable development, and her lived experience brings a powerful voice to the growing CLT movement in the UK. Juliet often speaks to the legacy and innovation of Black-led housing activism in Britain, bridging past struggles with present-day organizing.
-
Board Member, European CLT Network; Member, La Borda Housing Cooperative; Member, Solidarity Economy Network of Catalonia (XES)
Adrià is a designer and activist involved in projects enabling the everyday life of just sustainability transitions. He is a founding member of La Borda housing cooperative, founding member of the Solidarity Economy Network of Catalonia (XES) housing committee, and founding member of holon, a non-profit cooperative design agency supporting leading organisations in the just transition. He is currently conducting a PhD on policy design and transitions by the Open University of Catalonia.
-
Member, Cork CLT Steering Committee; Co-founder, Living Commons and Radical Institute
Dr Eve Olney is a socially engaged creative producer, mentor, writer and practice-based researcher. Her praxis incorporates a social ecological ethnographic approach to social change through collaborative creative practice within community building. She is a founding member of Cork Community Land Trust steering committee (CCLT). She co-founded Cork-based community creative space, The Living Commons as well as the Radical Institute (with Dr Krini Kafiris) – a transnational mentorship and training initiative that explores how the arts and cultural practice can promote and sustain radical social and ecological change. She leads the Traveller Tenancy Participatory Programme for the (TAU), Cork City Council.
-
Co-President, International Center for CLTs; Lead Consultant, TA\CHT at Champlain Housing Trust
Brenda has advanced the community land trust model at local, national and international levels. She established and has led Champlain Housing Trust, the largest US CLT for 29 years, was chair of the National CLT Network, Board Member and Officer of its successor, Grounded Solutions Network and since 2005, has helped to export the model to England, Canada, Belgium and France. Under her leadership CHT received the 2008 UN World Habitat Award. Brenda was a Ford Foundation Leader for a Changing World in 2001, is the Co-President of the International Center for CLTs, and past member of the Boston Home Loan and Federal Reserve Banks’ Advisory Committees, and the Vermont Governor’s Housing Council. Currently Brenda provides technical assistance to local governments, citizen groups and non-profits as TA\ CHT’s Lead Consultant.
-
Network Director, European CLT Network
Keti Tskitishvili is Director of the European Community Land Trust Network, a growing alliance of organisations reclaiming land and housing as commons across Europe. Her career began in Georgia, where she worked on displacement and social inclusion in the aftermath of internal conflicts. Since then, she has focused on migration, integration, and community-led development, combining policy insight with a deep commitment to grassroots action. Georgian-born and Brussels-based, she thrives in multilingual, multicultural spaces (and often juggles more than one language and timezone before breakfast). Whether mentoring activists or designing new governance models, her work is always rooted in equity, access, and joy. She believes sustainable futures are built from the ground up—by communities, for communities.
Info and registration
For more information on the session, please contact Rylan Shewmaker (rylan.shewmaker@clteurope.org)