Decommodifying land in Philadelphia — governance from the ground up
Community land trusts in Kensington and beyond are testing whether neighborhoods can govern their own futures against displacement. It's hyperlocal democratic innovation with a clear thesis: ownership structures are governance structures.
In Kensington, a Philadelphia neighborhood that survived decades as an opioid epicenter only to face gentrification, residents are testing a different ownership model. The Kensington Corridor Trust — a community-led nonprofit — now controls 31 properties along Kensington Avenue, renting them at below-market rates to keep longtime residents in place as luxury condos rise nearby. It’s governance through property ownership, a direct challenge to the logic that neighborhoods must simply endure whatever capital decides.
The model is spreading. Grounded Solutions Network launched a fund in 2024 that mimics private equity tactics — buying single-family homes in bulk, roughly 300 in the Twin Cities last year — then offering local land trusts first rights to purchase as homes become vacant. It’s an infrastructure play for decommodification, creating the financial muscle community groups typically lack. In Kensington, the trust bought eight commercial properties in 2024 and is opening an 800-square-foot grocery store this year, operator from the neighborhood, carrying the fresh produce residents have been asking for.
This is governance innovation at its most concrete: who owns the land determines who gets to stay, what gets built, and whose vision of community prevails. Community land trusts aren’t debating housing policy — they’re enacting it, building the alternative infrastructure while the market does what markets do. Whether this scales beyond hundreds of properties to reshape entire urban systems remains the open question, but the governance logic is clear: ownership is power, and power can be structured differently.