A/HRC/25/54 and savings.21 Collective tenure can also provide a high degree of security and safeguard against the threat of predatory purchasing by higher-income groups and speculators by vesting decision-making powers, including the right to sell, in the collective. Collective tenure forms include the following. 19. Housing cooperatives are established by a group of persons who form a legal entity to develop and maintain a housing project for the collective benefit of members.22 In countries like the Philippines, Sweden and Uruguay, government programmes help communities to acquire, develop and manage land for cooperative housing. Since 1968, Uruguay has had legislative regulation of cooperatives, and approximately 600 cooperatives currently house some 20,000 families.23 Cooperatives’ success as a provider of low-income housing has been largely due to the existence of the Federation of Mutual Aid Housing Cooperatives, which supports democratic participation, self-management and the joint effort of families in the construction of homes.24 In Argentina, the Buenos Aires municipality has established a credit programme for housing cooperatives.25 20. Community land trusts (CLTs) are held by non-profit community-controlled organizations that acquire land for the purpose of providing affordable housing.26 Lands are removed from the speculative market to preserve affordability and made available through long-term leases for housing, businesses, urban agriculture and community facilities. CLTs have increased in popularity since the 1980s, especially in the United States where over 260 have been established.27 Community organizing, and land donations and financial support from municipal governments, are key to their success. 21. Hybrid tenure models combine cooperatives and CLTs. Multi-residential buildings are owned and managed by a housing cooperative and the underlying land is owned by the CLT, providing another layer of protection for affordability. The Cooper Square CLT, for example, in New York City holds the land to over 300 low-income housing units in multifamily buildings owned and managed by a mutual housing association.28 22. States should adopt measures to promote collective forms of tenure, including supportive legislative and institutional frameworks and suitable financing instruments.29 States should consider supporting collective tenure strategies for low-income housing through the allocation of public funds and well-located urban land, property tax exemptions and other tax benefits.30 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 10 A/68/289, paras. 43 et seq. Ibid, paras. 48–55. Law No. 13.728 of 1968, regulated by decree 633/69. Questionnaire response from Uruguay. Law No. 341 of Buenos Aires. A/68/289, paras. 56–62. CLTs have been established in Australia, Belgium, Canada and England. See: www.cltnetwork.org/About-CLTs/What-Are-Community-Land-Trusts; D. Diacon, et al., Redefining the Commons (Coalville, Building and Social Housing Foundation, 2005), pp. 4–7. Tom Angotti, Community Land Trusts and Low-Income Multifamily Rental Housing: The Case of Cooper Square, New York City, Working Paper (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2007), pp. 3 and 5– 7. For example, the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001, paras. 83–86 on establishment of a tenant management cooperative. A/68/289, paras. 48–55.