CommonSpace Community Land Trust

CommonSpace Community Land Trust

CommonSpace Community Land Trust (CSCLT) received its first-ever national CCHD grant in 2021.  It has received a total of three grants, including its most recent grant of $25,000 for the 2023-2024 grant cycle, for a total of $80,000.

At issue is that the leadership of CSCLT is run by openly pro-abortion leadership.

One of the long-running concerns about community land trusts is the association with and ideological similarity to socialism and Socialist organizations.  It is not uncommon to see a CLT working with Socialist organizations or its leadership singing the praises of Socialist Bernie Sanders.

On 12 May 2025, CSCLT posted a message from Socialist Bernie Sanders to the “Global Community Land Trust Movement.”

A co-founder, former President, and current Development Director for CSCLT is Darryl Berlin.

On 15 September 2022, Berlin supported abortion by calling pro-life laws a “backwards, anti-woman agenda.”

On 17 June 2025, Berlin participated in a “No Kings” protest, which displayed a “king” with his head stuck through the operating end of a guillotine.

CONCLUSION

The co-founder of CSCLT has outed himself as pro-abortion, and has no qualms about spreading violent imagery and rhetoric against his political opponents.  Furthermore, CSCLT has shown itself to be aligned with Socialist Bernie Sanders.  If personnel is policy, then leadership reigns supreme.  No organization with leadership like this should receive funding from any Catholic organization.