Are CLTs the vehicle to retain much needed affordable housing and finance future sustainable and locally guided development on publicly owned land in Metro Vancouver?
Join Brenda Torpy, CEO of the Champlain Housing Trust, to learn about her approach to stewarding land for the benefit of the community and how it created long-term affordability impacts. Based in Vermont, the Champlain Housing Trust is one of the oldest and most widely known Community Land Trusts in North America. She will share how Burlington, Vermont, benefited from the low-risk, high-impact creation of a Community Land Trust. Gordon Price, director of the SFU City Program, will moderate a discussion with the audience following the presentation.

About the speaker

Brenda M. Torpy, CEO of the Champlain Housing Trust, has 34 years of experience in the affordable housing field, starting with rural community development and affordable housing advocacy in northern Vermont. As the Community and Economic Development Office’s first housing director for the City of Burlington, Brenda led the development of the Burlington Community Land Trust, now Champlain Housing Trust, and served as the founding board president. In 1991, she joined the staff as executive director.