As a community with informal land claims in a prime city location, residents living along the polluted Martín Peña Channel in San Juan, Puerto Rico faced dual challenges: creating better environmental and infrastructural conditions for their community without encouraging gentrification. Residents and the ENLACE Corporation, a government agency, established a Fideicomiso, or Community Land Trust (CLT). This CLT model develops and manages affordable housing on behalf of the community by separating the value of the land and the buildings, so land is held in perpetuity by the community – meaning it will remain affordable for local people.
This model at Caño Martín Peña was developed through participatory workshops with residents where regulations and governing documents were drawn up, including a Comprehensive Development Plan and plans for long-term financial sustainability. The use of CLT for urban informal settlements is groundbreaking because it enables existing residents to remain in their community as it improves – rather than be priced or pushed out – and Caño Martín Peña is now viewed as an effective model to respond to the urban poor’s insecurity of tenure.