Fort Worth Community Land Trust Celebrates Early Milestones

Earlier this week, the Fort Worth Community Land Trust hosted a celebration to mark key milestones reached in its first two years of operation.

The City of Fort Worth published a blog post about the event on Friday. According to the post, the celebration took place on May 19.

One of the key milestones was the $1.1 million investment the land trust received from JPMorganChase to support the community developer initiative.

That initiative provides local and nonprofit developers with training, technical assistance, and access to land acquired from the city to build quality affordable homes in neighborhoods threatened by blight and displacement.

The Fort Worth City Council established the community land trust in 2024. It aims to create permanent affordability by offering homebuyers quality homes paired with leased land, built-in resale protections, homebuyer education, and guidance on down payment assistance programs.

That should result in attainable paths to homeownership for first-time, first-generation buyers of moderate incomes who are increasingly priced out of the market.

Mayor Mattie Parker delivered remarks to open the program, discussing Fort Worth's rapid growth and the need for affordable housing options across the city. Now the 10th largest city in the United States, Fort Worth home prices are continuing to rise, intensifying the need for sustainable home ownership solutions for teachers, first responders, health care workers, and working families.

"The work we're celebrating today represents what's possible when organizations across our city join together to solve our most pressing challenges," Parker said. She also emphasized the importance of continued collaboration among the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

The event also celebrated Carroll Park developer Housing Channel. The development is the trust's first-ever affordable homeownership community in South Fort Worth. Its first phase of development entered the market earlier this year, featuring homes priced at approximately $135,000.