Cornerstone Community Land Trust Donate

Cleveland, Ohio · Land held in trust

Own your home. Share the land. Grow roots that never get sold.

Cornerstone Community Land Trust holds the ground beneath your home, so the house you buy stays within reach — for you, and for whoever comes after you.

Become a member See how the model works

One house, two owners. That's the whole model.

A community land trust splits one property into two things: the land and the house. The trust keeps the land. You keep the home. That's what makes the affordability permanent instead of temporary.

Step 01

The lot before

Parcels sit unused for years. Weeds, a fence line, a mowed patch nobody tends. The question hanging over the block is simple: who is this land for?

Step 02

The ground comes off the market

Cornerstone takes the land into trust — through donation, partnership or purchase — and holds it for the community. It is never sold off, never flipped, never split from the house.

Step 03

The building is yours

An income-qualified buyer purchases the house and signs a long-term, renewable ground lease for the land. You get a mortgage and title in your name, and a real front door.

Step 04

It stays within reach, next time too

When you move on, the home is sold to the next income-qualified household at a price that stays within reach. The neighborhood keeps its people.

The split, plainly

What the trust holds — and what belongs to you.

What the trust holds

  • The land itself, held for the community in perpetuity.
  • A long-term, renewable ground lease with you.
  • The covenant that keeps the home affordable at resale.
  • A stewardship relationship for as long as you live there.

What you hold

  • The house, with a mortgage and title in your name.
  • Equity as you pay the loan down.
  • A voice in the trust as a member.
  • The right to sell to the next income-qualified household.

Four ways in. Pick the one that fits your week.

Whether you have an hour, a dollar or a whole Saturday, there's a place for you at Cornerstone. Here's how people get started.

No. 01

Donate

Grow the land fund

Recurring gifts buy ground and take it out of speculation. The land stays in trust for good, no matter who lives there next.

Give monthly →
No. 02

Join

Become a member

Members take part in decisions at the annual meeting, hear about new homes first, and help shape how the trust grows.

Apply for membership →
No. 03

Volunteer

Work a Saturday with us

Bring gloves. We clear lots, plant beds, patch porches and eat lunch outside. There is a job for every pair of hands.

See volunteer days →
No. 04

Learn

Start with homebuyer education

The whole path, explained plainly — credit, budgeting, mortgages, and what a land trust lease actually means for you.

Ask about classes →

Stewardship

We stay after the keys change hands.

A land trust is not a handshake and goodbye. Cornerstone keeps a relationship with every household on our land — checking in, answering questions, and helping when something needs fixing. That relationship is what keeps homes affordable and neighbors steady, year after year.

  1. 01

    A steward you can call

    Questions about your lease, your repairs or your plans? There is a person at Cornerstone who knows your address and picks up the phone.

  2. 02

    Help when the house needs it

    From a leaking porch roof to a furnace on its last winter, we point you toward programs, contractors and neighbors who can help.

  3. 03

    A clear path if you move

    If life takes you elsewhere, we walk the resale through with you — pricing it fairly and finding the next household who needs it.

Talk with a steward
A resident tending a small raised bed in the front yard of a Cleveland home
Stewardship visits happen on the porch, in the yard, and on your schedule.
A small homebuyer education group seated around a table in a community room
Homebuyer education, in a room with neighbors.

Work the row beside someone.

Volunteer days and community workshops are how most people meet Cornerstone first — gloves on, learning by doing, with lunch at the end of it.

Neighbors clearing and planting a vacant city lot together on a bright morning
Volunteer days, Cleveland — bring gloves, leave with a full plate.
  1. 01

    Volunteer days

    Clear a lot, plant beds, scrape a porch rail, haul brush. Every work day ends with food and a walk around what got done.

  2. 02

    Community workshops

    Money, mortgages, repairs and wills — taught plainly, in a room with neighbors, with time for the questions you actually have.

  3. 03

    Homebuyer education

    The full path from first question to closing day, including what it means to buy a house on land held in trust.

A modest Cleveland house with a wide porch and a newly planted front garden in evening light
A house on trust-held land — the ground stays put, so the home stays reachable.

Plant with us

Plant something that outlives the mortgage.

A recurring gift buys land and holds it for good. A membership adds your voice to the decisions. Both of them keep a Cleveland block from being sold out from under the people who live on it.

Give monthly Apply for membership

Recurring gift

Give monthly by mail or in person at a member meeting — we'll set it up with you.

Membership

Open to residents, homebuyers and neighbors. Ask us how the application works.