CY PLAN 113B Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Community Land Trust, Community Reinvestment Act, Land Trust
22 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Couity Lad Trusts March 4, 8
• Why? Compel people to understand why they should do this intervention in 2 sentences. What is the
most compelling reason?
• Concerns about market based financing
o Critiques:
▪ If capitalism is helping to produce these unequal landscapes of poverty, then tools
that rely on private market investment may just exacerbate inequalities over the
long-term
• State sponsored gentrification: Seen as market-based gentrification – some
evidence of this; makes it easier for market based developers to create more
housing for market rate units
• Land speculation/displacement
• Requirements of capital: a return on investment, debt repayment
▪ Those in power are still in power
• Gains to low-ioe failies are sall, ad do’t disrupt the poer or
politial eooy diesios of ura poerty
• Dudley street neighborhood initiative: seeks to disrupt power dynamics (political economy and
power)
o In migration of people of color: African Americans from the South, international migration
o White flight occurring at the same time
o Redlining leads to urban decline in Boston
o Property owners were burning down the houses where the values were declining rather than
selling them. This allowed them to get the insurance money.
▪ Increasing encroachment of vacant lands
▪ People were in the properties when they were burned down
o Absentee landlords sit on the land until land values have risen
o Landlords also stop paying land taxes, which leads to a lien on the land. However, the city
does’t hae the resoures to do anything on the land
o In Dudley street, there were companies that dumped trash on these land as a waste station
▪ Dagerous ad it sells does’t separate food aste, edial aste, et.
o Conditions led to concentrated poverty – low educational attainment, increasing
violence/drug use, low employment
o In every movement, the spark has to be against a common enemy (clear target to organize
agaist. The otto as Do’t Dup o Us ad gets the ayor ioled
o Huge areas of land near Dudley street are being cleared and replaced with commercial
buildings and hotels
▪ Residents fight against this event happening to their land
▪ When urban renewal process is released, real estate land values shoot up and
ladlords at i. But the ouity does’t at this to happe
• Social and political capital
o Gus Newport: takes over as the new Executive Direction of DSNI
o Need connections to financial resources
o Pushes DS away from a protesting mode, to one that integrates other approaches
o Recognized importance of creating connections between the community members and other
spaces of power
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
o Connect community to financial sector, banks, leveraged Community Reinvestment Act
o Needs otrol of the lad i order to keep the ouity feel – every battle is about land,
entitlements, and land value
• Land control
o Wanted the city to give the access to the vacant property lots by seizing the land through
eminent domain
▪ These vacant lands are owned by speculator investors
▪ First time that a community was able to take land under communal ownership
through eminent domain (Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative) = gain control over
community
• Land trusts
o Take the land out of the land market by creating a land trust
o Idea is that land is a public good so we should take out the exchange value by taking it out of
the private market, and focusing on the use value
• DSNI Community land trust
o CLT (Community Land trust): is a nonprofit, community-based corporation committed to the
stewardship and affordability of land housing and other buildings used for community benefit
in perpetuity
o CLTs acquire land through donation or purchase (land is expensive and you need a
mortgage/downpayment)
▪ Removes this land from speculative market
▪ Places long-term control of this land in the hands of the local community – people in
the neighborhood gets a say in what happens to the land (tackles political economy
sphere)
▪ Allows community to control long-term use, disposition and affordability of buildings
located on CLT-owned land
▪ Land trusts are usually owned by a non-profit
• CLT: removes land from market and speculation
o Ay property priig gais fro the lad is’t yours, you only get to control the
improvements to the house
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Compel people to understand why they should do this intervention in 2 sentences. What is the most compelling reason: concerns about market based financing, critiques: This allowed them to get the insurance money. However, the city does(cid:374)"t ha(cid:448)e the resour(cid:272)es to do anything on the land. In every movement, the spark has to be against a common enemy (clear target to organize agai(cid:374)st(cid:895). Land trusts: take the land out of the land market by creating a land trust. Land trusts are usually owned by a non-profit: clt: removes land from market and speculation, a(cid:374)y property pri(cid:272)i(cid:374)g gai(cid:374)s fro(cid:373) the la(cid:374)d is(cid:374)"t yours, you only get to control the improvements to the house. Landlord role v. community building role: (cid:449)hat a(cid:271)out people (cid:449)ho are(cid:374)"t a(cid:271)idi(cid:374)g (cid:271)y the community rules: cost of land. Homeowner: can only sell to eligible buyer (ie: only low.
