In this episode of New Housing Alternatives, hosts Cherise Burda and Dr. Ren Thomas speak with Dominique Russell, writer, activist, teacher, and co‑director of the Kensington Market Community Land Trust (KMCLT). Together, they explore how community land trusts (CLTs) use collective ownership, organizing, and mutual aid to fight displacement and preserve deeply affordable housing and commercial spaces in Toronto’s Kensington Market.
Drawing on a decade of neighborhood organizing—from stopping a proposed Walmart to acquiring three mixed‑use buildings—Dominique explains how CLTs decommodify land, center community power, and reimagine what “ownership” can look like. She discusses funding tools like Toronto’s Multi‑Unit Residential Acquisition (MURA) program and community bonds, and reflects on how CLTs across Canada are increasingly grounding their work in decolonization, land back, and social justice.
Key Takeaways
- Community land trusts (CLTs) decommodify land and housing: CLTs are democratically controlled, neighborhood‑based nonprofits that acquire and hold land for community benefit, prioritizing security of tenure and affordable homes and commercial spaces over market returns.
- Organizing comes before funding: KMCLT’s story shows that successful acquisition and financing (through tools like Toronto’s MURA program and community bonds) only become possible after deep community organizing, knowing your neighbors, and building a shared, representative vision for the neighborhood.
- CLTs are part of a broader movement for decolonization and social justice: KMCLT and other members of the Canadian Network of Community Land Trusts are increasingly centring land back, decolonization, and racial justice—redefining community ownership as mutual aid, local power, and long‑term resistance to displacement and gentrification.
Chapters:
00:00 – Intro & Episode Overview
00:39 – Introducing Dominique Russell & Kensington Market CLT
01:25 – What Is a Community Land Trust? CLTs vs. Nonprofit Housing
04:13 – Why Kensington? Neighbourhood Preservation and Mission
04:39 – KMCLT’s Buildings on Kensington and Spadina
07:30 – From Anti‑Walmart Campaign to Community Land Trust
10:54 – Organizing Before Funding: Building a Representative CLT
11:04 – Acquisition, MURA, and Protecting Vulnerable Rental Housing
14:23 – Community Bonds and Financing Community Ownership
16:40 – Community Support, Short‑Term Rentals, and Displacement
19:24 – Advice for Communities Wanting to Start a CLT
21:20 – Future of KMCLT: Leadership Transition and Decolonizing Practice
23:30 – Relationship to Chinatown and Business Ecology
26:25 – Love of Place as the Emotional Core of CLT Work
28:58 – Local Organizing and the Wider CLT Movement
29:45 – Reflections & Key Lessons from Kensington Market
30:18 – Outro, Show Notes, and Credits
Learn more about the Kensington Market Community Land Trust here: https://kmclt.ca/
New Housing Alternatives is made possible with the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Explore our Vision & Objectives and Research Clusters & Projects, and subscribe to our blog at the link below:
What is New Housing Alternatives?
What if the solutions to Canada’s housing crisis are already out there, just hidden in plain sight? New Housing Alternatives Podcast digs deeper to uncover what really works in solving the affordability issue.
Despite dominant narratives claiming our housing crisis can be solved by simply building more market-rate supply, nearly half of Canadian households can’t afford average rents today. The crisis is deeper than a numbers game; it’s about who we’re building for, who gets left out, and what kind of communities we want to live in.
Join hosts Ren Thomas and Cherise Burda as they explore real solutions to this once-in-a-generation housing crisis and cut through the noise on Canada’s housing affordability crisis to spotlight real solutions that already exist, and the people making them happen.
New Housing Alternatives is made possible with the support of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Partnership Grant, a partnership that is co-directed by Alan Walks and Susannah Bunce and based at the University of Toronto.
In this series, we talk to the people doing the work: nonprofit and co-operative developers, community organizers, and researchers reimagining housing not as a commodity, but as a human right. These are the underdogs creating affordable homes against the odds, proving it’s possible to build housing for people, not profit.
You’ll hear from:
-Ground-breaking developers creating alternative models of co-ownership and co-ops
-Policy experts who challenge the supply-only narrative
-Economists and data experts unpack how affordability vanishes, and how to bring it back
-Community leaders who are preserving existing homes and building new ones in ways that centre dignity and access
Whether you're a policymaker, housing advocate, or simply someone trying to make rent, this podcast brings you stories and insights that show a different future is not only possible, it’s already being built.