February
2021
2
The City Council has passed legislation charting the course for ending New York City’s tax lien sale, and replacing it with an equitable municipal debt collection system that preserves affordable housing and stabilizes Black and brown NYC neighborhoods.
January
2021
19
NYC needs transformative, community-led solutions to our city’s affordability crisis that advance racial equity and a just recovery. I am pleased to testify in support of Intro 1977, the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA), and Intro 118-A, to establish a municipal land bank. Passage of these bills will give communities–and the City, itself–new tools to keep New Yorkers safely housed, expand community land trusts and social housing, and curb speculation in the wake of COVID-19. We thank Council Member Rivera and Council Member Lander for their leadership and urge the Committee to advance this critical legislation.
December
2020
9
We urge the Council not to introduce legislation reauthorizing the tax lien sale, and work with community partners, including community land trusts (CLTs), to develop an alternative and equitable system to address property tax arrears and, when appropriate, property disposition. The City’s practice of selling municipal debt to a private, investor-backed trust fuels speculation and displacement in Black and brown neighborhoods, siphoning wealth from communities disproportionately harmed by historic inequities like redlining and disinvestment, and now hardest hit by COVID-19…
November
2020
30
This memo, prepared with partners at the New York City Community Land Initiative, City College of New York, and TakeRoot Justice, provides a brief introduction to CLTs and proposes alternatives to the lien sale that prioritize CLTs, in partnership with mission-driven, nonprofit developers, as both resources for vulnerable homeowners and recipients of foreclosed properties.
October
2020
30
New Economy Project was thrilled to connect recently with Africatown Community Land Trust in Seattle, WA, to learn about its work on community land ownership as a tool for reparations and racial justice. The conversation was the latest in a series of learning exchanges we are organizing between NYC Community Land Initiative partners and CLTs around the country.
October
2020
22
The City — New York’s pandemic pause on a program that sells unpaid city property debts to investors has community advocates calling to scrap the Giuliani-era approach altogether.
September
2020
22
From coast to coast, a growing number of community land trusts (CLTs) are creating deeply-affordable housing, preventing displacement, and advancing self-determination in Black and brown communities. As the COVID-19 crisis exacerbates racial and economic inequality, and leaves millions at risk of eviction and homelessness, this work is more urgent than ever.
June
2020
26
City Limits — Housing advocates and elected officials released a new plan Thursday which calls on the de Blasio administration and City Council to support more development of community land trusts, maintain tenant protections, restore the city’s affordable housing budget and create new a path to homeownership.
June
2020
26
Gotham Gazette — In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, New York faces two new fronts in its housing crisis — a wave of heightened speculation likely to destabilize communities and an onslaught of expected evictions as housing courts reopen.
June
2020
25
As the Mayor and City Council finalize next year’s City budget, we are fighting to make sure Community Land Trusts (CLTs) are included! Join us in calling for renewed funding of the citywide CLT initiative, to support community control over land and housing. In the wake of COVID-19, community control of land is more critical than […]