The Community Land Trust Model Brings Affordable Housing to Milwaukee

More than half of Americans who don’t own homes think homeownership will never be possible for them, according to a 2025 Northwestern Mutual study. The financial services company and Milwaukee Community Land Trust are working to change that in Wisconsin's largest city. In spite of rising costs of living, stagnant wages, and skyrocketing home prices, they are putting homes in reach for more people. 

Milwaukee Community Land Trust buys run-down houses and properties in the city, fixes the homes or builds new ones, and then sells them to residents with lower incomes at fair prices. Building affordable housing can change lives for individuals and families, but it also goes further, helping revitalize a city and turn vacant spaces into thriving neighborhoods. In 2023, Northwestern Mutual invested $2.5 million in the trust to support its affordable housing work. 

So far, the community land trust’s work with Northwestern Mutual and other Milwaukee organizations has created over 125 affordable houses. If the buyers ever decide to sell these homes, they’re required to sell them at fair, below-market prices, just as they bought them. This helps ensure the new affordable housing will stay affordable for generations to come. 

“We are on a mission to help people be on a better path towards financial stability,” said Grady Crosby, chief impact officer at Northwestern Mutual. Homeownership plays a role in that stability. Homes are financial assets, with values that tend to go up over time. They can be passed down to the next generation, building wealth for families across decades. Yet because of the high and rising costs of buying a home, many people end up renting instead. 

“People who are renting are subject to some fairly vicious swings in in rental rates,” Crosby said. This makes financial planning difficult. Owning a home means having a mortgage with stable monthly payments instead. 

When Northwestern Mutual made its investment in 2023, Milwaukee Community Land Trust quickly put those funds to use, hiring local experts to turn empty buildings and vacant lots into livable space.

"Northwestern Mutual’s impact investment was a game-changer. It allowed us to move quickly in a system that often slows down small developers and nonprofits,” said Lamont Davis, executive director of the trust. “Without it, accessing construction financing would’ve been nearly impossible, and small, local contractors would have been left waiting to be paid."

The influx of funding also helped the trust prove to itself and others that this model would work. “It affirmed our faith that the community land trust model could work here in Milwaukee," said Theresa Thomas-Boyd, chair of the Milwaukee Community Land Trust board. "By showing that affordable, dignified housing can be delivered with care and purpose, it opened hearts and doors to new partners who believe in this mission just as deeply as we do." 

The community land trust’s approach includes support for buyers, especially those who have never owned a home. “A lot of times, it's first-time homebuyers, those that have been kind of pressed out of the housing market,” Crosby said.

When buying through the trust, they attend home buying counseling sessions, where they learn about the responsibilities of homeownership up front, like taxes, maintenance costs and other expenses. They also learn about the stipulations for resale, part of a legal contract known as a land trust agreement. This agreement means buyers own the home and lease the land it is on, which helps ensure low mortgage payments, and places limits on the profits from resale. 

“They agree when they buy these properties that anytime they sell the property, according to the land trust, they will sell it also at a below-market price,” Crosby said. They can leave the house to an heir, if they choose. But if the heir decides to sell, the stipulations for resale are still in effect.  

Crosby said he believes firmly that this community land trust approach can work elsewhere. In fact, it already has, with hundreds of similar models across the country. He urged people and organizations interested in doing something similar to start a conversation: “Come and talk to us here at Northwestern Mutual, come and talk to the fine folks at Milwaukee Community Land Trust because this model definitely can be replicated, and it's also scalable."

Still, difficulties remain. Many Americans face barriers that put affordable housing out of reach, like a lack of job and educational opportunities. Other financial factors play a role, too. For example, this project doesn’t address high interest rates on mortgages, an obstacle Crosby said buyers are currently facing.

“There are a myriad of challenges and issues,” Crosby said. “Home ownership is just one that is manifested as a result of some of the other needs that our community is going through.”

The challenges are especially severe for people of color. “We've seen that, and statistics show that, Black and brown families are even more impacted with regard to affordable housing,” Crosby said. In Milwaukee, as in the U.S. overall, Black and Latino homeownership rates are far lower than white homeownership rates.

The challenge now is to make even more housing, and the opportunities it brings, available to more people, in more places. A fresh influx of affordable housing can have a ripple effect, resulting in a more beautiful and vibrant community. 

“We know that when people have more financial stability, they become more confident,” Crosby said. “They become more contributing in their communities. Communities get better. And when we allow folk to really reach their full potential, we believe it's a benefit to all.”