September
2023
18
Brookyln Reader — Community land trusts are expanding across the city, and during a panel at Pratt Institute last week, local leaders in the movement said the trend could mean big things for affordable housing in Brooklyn’s communities of color.
September
2023
8
The Architect’s Newspaper — New York City has historically been a city at the front lines of housing justice and tenant activism. One of the entities at the forefront of this are Community Land Trusts (CLTs), of which there are 15 of in the city. Today, CLTs and alliances working alongside them are working hard to pass the Community Land Act (CLA), a proposed legislative package aimed to give CLTs more power (or really, level the playing field) when buying land or buildings.
July
2023
14
The Brian Lehrer Show — As this year’s budget season comes to a close in New York City, Tousif Ahsan, Public banking campaign organizer at the New Economy Project, and James Parrott, Director of economic and fiscal policies at the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School, explain the findings of a new report that shows how holding city money in a public bank could uplift the local economy, create jobs, tackle the affordable housing crisis, and move us forward on the path for a more sustainable and economically just future.
July
2023
10
Gothamist — New York City is missing out on thousands of new affordable apartments and billions of dollars in local investments without a publicly owned bank to deposit its cash, according to an analysis by the city’s former chief economist and fellow researchers.
July
2023
2
Norwood News — At a public meeting billed as a “Boroughwide Town Hall on Public Banking,” representatives from ten Bronx-based groups joined various elected officials to push for State and City legislators to build upon efforts to promote worker-owned businesses, increase community land trusts, and facilitate access to more local credit unions as an alternative to big commercial banks.
June
2023
1
City Limits — “Too often we think banking has nothing to do with democracy,” said State Senate Banking Committee Chair James Sanders at last week’s hearing of the New York City Banking Commission.
But banking and democracy were on full, if not always fulsome, display at the hearing as the commission decided which banks would be eligible to receive more than $100 billion in annual city agency deposits over the next two years. For the first time, the commission accepted public testimony before voting on which banks could hold city dollars.
May
2023
17
City Limits — Back in February, before housing policy fizzled out of state budget negotiations, the New York City Council held a hearing on bills aimed at boosting the supply of homes accessible to, and controlled by, low-income New Yorkers.
May
2023
4
NYN Media — With over half of New York City tenants spending nearly a third of their income on rent, affordable housing is crucial to ensuring a safe future for New Yorkers. That’s why advocates in have rallied and thrown their support behind the Community Land Act, a package of bills before the New York City Council that would provide nonprofits and community land trusts with the resources to develop permanently affordable housing. Community land trusts hold land under community control, thus guaranteeing the community derives benefits from it. Spearheading this campaign is the NYC Community Land Initiative, a coalition of housing organizations trying to expand social housing.
April
2023
26
WBAI’s Living for the City — The move toward the creation of a Public Bank in NYC–its status and necessity, explained by Andy Morrison, associate director of New Economy Project.
April
2023
19
Hell Gate — In 2021, New York City officials won praise when the boards of several of the City’s five pension funds voted to divest $4 billion from firms invested in fossil fuels. “Today is a major victory for our planet, our children, and our pensioners,” the City Comptroller’s office declared in a statement.