Picture the Homeless Blog: Community Land Trusts are a Huge Success at Talking Transition – AND BEYOND

Maybe we’re just a little giddy about the impending regime change here at home, but Picture the Homeless has been so excited to be part of the conversations taking place in the Talking Transition tent down on Canal Street at 6th Avenue. From the North Star Fund talking about the lessons organizing and activism can learn from Hurricane Sandy, to “A Path to Real Affordable Housing” convened by New York Communities for Change [We’ll also be part of the conversation Monday, November 18th, at 6PM, with our partners in Communities united for Police Reform, entitled Redefining Public Safety – be there!]

The Villager highlighted our presentation at the Affordable Housing panel in an article, saying in part “Scott Hutchins said the group Picture the Homeless thinks the best way to ensure affordable housing is built is to create a “community land trust.””

And our excellent friends at UHAB wrote a terrific blog post about our breakout group on Community Land Trusts:

“The UHABers at the event attended the inspiring group discussing Community Land Trusts, an exciting proposal to create permanently affordable housing and community controlled land.  Basically, City Council would pass legislation allowing for the creating of a CLT, a nonprofit organization run by communities.  The CLT would acquire land and the community would have control over how that land is developed and maintained.  Our group, facilitated by Picture the Homeless, gave a popular-education style rundown of what community land trusts are and how folks could become involved with making it a reality.  UHAB has been involved with the discussion of land trusts because we believe that neighborhoods and buildings should be controlled by those who live there. One way that the land trust could acquire land would be through coops opting to donate the land under them to the trust (not the building itself).  UHAB, of course, has access to hundreds of HDFC’s who care about the preservation of affordable housing and community control.

Not only did we walk away inspired by the possibilities of a Community Land Trust, but we also were amazed at Talking Transitions and the power of intentionally coming together to envision a better New York. Check out more on the Community Land Trust Initiative here  or here and Talking Transitions here.”

And the buzz on community land trusts doesn’t stop there! In an article entitled “East Harlem May Seek Innovative Way to Fund Housing,” Upper Manhattan blog Northattan goes into great detail about the East Harlem Pilot Project that is a central component of our CLT work.

Several urban planning and housing academics from Hunter College, Columbia University, City College and the CUNY Graduate Center are proposing the trust with Picture the Homeless, and New Economy Project….

Community Board District 11 teamed up with The Regional Plan Association, an urban research and advocacy group, and determined that community land trusts could create significant affordable housing in the neighborhood, said Nicolas Ronderos, the association’s New York director. Picture the Homeless presented the East Harlem Case-Study with the land trust initiative to Community Board 11, explaining how community-owned housing can be a way to create and preserve affordable housing in East Harlem, focusing on how would it work and what would make it work. “The executive board liked the initiative,” said [George] Gallego, [a member of the Housing Committee of Community Board District 11].