Commonwealth Land Trust

Everyone needs a safe and secure place to live. For over a decade, Commonwealth Land Trust has been providing safe, affordable housing for the people who are most vulnerable in our society - low-income and single parent families, the mentally and physically disabled, the homeless, and people with HIV and AIDS. Currently, we provide close to 350 units of long-term affordable housing, serving over 600 low-income adults and children in both independent and supportive housing. We are proud to offer help and shelter to the people who have been historically left behind and pushed out by the hot real estate markets of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. 

Our services go far beyond just shelter from the streets. People with minimal job skills and a history of homelessness need to gain practical skills if they are to break the cycle of homelessness for good. CLT invests in the success of our residents by providing access to mental health and substance abuse counseling, assistance with language barriers, and help obtaining proper medical care, as well as employment, basic financial skills training, and work readiness. Our Site Managers and Social Services Coordinators work full-time to help residents solve the problems that put them at risk of homelessness.

As a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation, Commonwealth Land Trust has the ability to work in older urban areas where there are few, if any, neighborhood-based, affordable housing developers. We work directly with neighborhood groups and local Community Development Corporations (CDCs) to identify and acquire buildings that are the source of neighborhood problems and transform them into attractive, affordable housing, contributing to the well-being of the residents, the buildings and the neighborhoods.

Our mission of preventing the destruction of the historic character of Boston’s neighborhoods has resulted in the preservation of historically significant buildings in Boston's South End’s Chester Square, the Frederick Douglass Square Historic District in Roxbury, and on Beacon Hill. Meeting historic preservation guidelines, we have put these remarkable buildings back into use for the long-term benefit of low-income residents.