Across the country, communities are reclaiming control over land, housing, and commercial space – not just as a means of survival, but as a strategy for building wealth, stability, and belonging. From Baltimore to Denver to Philadelphia, local leaders are pioneering shared ownership models that keep value rooted in neighborhoods rather than extracted by outside investors.

• In Denver’s Globeville-Elyria-Swansea neighborhoods, Tierra Colectiva – a community land trust launched by the GES Coalition – protects residents and small businesses from displacement.
• In Philadelphia, the Kensington Corridor Trust is acquiring properties with street-level retail and rental housing on upper floors along a disinvested commercial corridor and placing them into a neighborhood trust.
• In Baltimore, StreetWell is restoring abandoned homes and returning them to community hands through collective real estate investment.
• In Minneapolis, the Sky Without Limits housing cooperative is turning renters into resident-owners, offering long-term stability in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood.
• In Atlanta, The Guild uses cooperative real estate models to support Black entrepreneurs and preserve accessible, mission-aligned commercial space.
• And in Portland, Oregon, the East Portland Community Investment Trust allows local residents – many of them low-income and first-time investors – to buy shares in their neighborhood shopping center, building wealth while keeping assets under community control.

These models may differ, but they share a common goal: shifting who controls and benefits from community assets. “Shared ownership” refers to collective ownership of land by a community or a group rather than by an individual or private entity. Shared ownership models are designed to ensure that the control and benefits of land use remain within the community, typically to promote affordable housing, preserve cultural heritage, support economic development, or provide communal spaces.

Community real estate ownership, the collective ownership of land by a community or group rather than by an individual or private entity, redirects wealth-building opportunities to people historically excluded from them. It anchors culture and connection in place. It ensures that development meets community needs, not just market demand.

And this work is growing.

We’re seeing a surge of new and expanded legacy efforts: community land trusts, housing and commercial co-ops, investment trusts, and hybrid models tailored to local context. These efforts aren’t fringe. They’re vital – and they’re forming the foundation of a movement.

But right now, that movement is still largely invisible, a set of unconnected dots across the national landscape.

Too many projects are working in isolation. Funders support innovation but overlook the long-term infrastructure the field needs. Policymakers see affordable housing, but don’t appreciate the ownership structures underneath. And many practitioners don’t yet see themselves as part of a shared ecosystem.

To help change that, the Center for Community Investment built the Community Real Estate Ownership Ecosystem Map – a new interactive tool that spotlights more than 200 community ownership efforts across the United States.

The map offers more than visibility. It offers possibility. It’s a step toward naming and resourcing this work as a cohesive field.

Because if we’re going to scale this work – not just in size, but in impact – we need to start treating it like the field it is. That means investing in the infrastructure: policies that support collective ownership, capital tools that align with community timelines, and narrative strategies that tell the full story of what’s working.

Shared ownership is one of the most promising strategies we have to confront racialized disinvestment, fight displacement, and build community wealth. But to fulfill that promise, we need coordination. We need connection. And we need to see these projects not as exceptions, but as evidence of a deeper shift already underway.

This is a call to connect the dots.

Explore the map. Share it. Add your project. Use it in grant proposals, policy campaigns, and resident meetings. Let it help us see ourselves as part of something bigger.

Gretchen Beesing is a seasoned leader in community economic development and the Principal of Yes/And Strategies, a consulting practice advancing community wealth and cooperative ownership. A Senior Fellow with the Center for Community Investment, she previously led Catalyst Miami, launching Florida’s first universal children’s savings program. With a background in social work and policy advocacy, she’s a frequent speaker and board member, recognized for her work in financial empowerment and community-controlled development.