UpCycling Trust: Upcycling substandard buildings into affordable housing with Community Land Trusts

The housing crisis affecting many cities in the region is calling for the production of more affordable housing. Building new housing is often in conflict with many cities' circular strategies, including the preservation of existing open space, and the reduction of building resources. In parallel, the need for renovation of the housing stock to meet climate targets is both a challenge and an opportunity.
With the Upcycling Trust project, we want to explore how the combination of (1) a thorough, circular renovation approach and (2) the decomodification of housing (taking housing off the market so that it cannot be sold at a profit) can lead to more sustainable and affordable cities in a structural way.

Moreover, by putting local communities at the heart of the system, we aim to contribute to the resilience of cities.

Partners are Ville de Lille, Community Land Trust Brussels ASBL, Community Land Trust Ghent, Metropole of Lille Housing, Habitat2030, Rennes Metropolis, Self Organised Architecture Research CLG, Lille Européen Metropolis, Cork City Council, and Public Interest Foundation CLTB.

This project is co-funded by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the program INTERREG NWE for an amount of €3.123.919,57, for which the consortium is grateful.