New Economy Project, along with NYC Community Land Initiative (NYCCLI) coalition allies and 150 endorsing organizations, are leading the charge for the Community Land Act – a package of bills that would help community land trusts (CLTs) bring more land and housing into permanently affordable community ownership. Close to two-thirds of City Council Members co-sponsor the bills, but real estate interests and Mayor Adams are stalling progress. We’re calling on Speaker Adrienne Adams to bring the Community Land Act to a vote this session.
We closed out 2024 with a series of powerful Community Land Act Town Halls – engaging hundreds of New Yorkers in learning about the proposals and how CLTs are meeting urgent community needs – from deeply affordable housing to community and cultural spaces, and more. Each town hall had its own flavor and focus, reflecting the diversity of this grassroots movement.
Read on to learn more – and take action!
FIRST STOP: Brooklyn
Brooklyn residents gathered at Borough Hall, enjoyed food from Sea and Soil Worker Coop, and engaged in a role-play exercise illustrating how one of the bills – the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA) – would work. Modeled on similar policies adopted in Washington, D.C., San Francisco and elsewhere, COPA would give community land trusts and other qualified nonprofits a first right to purchase residential buildings when landlords sell. East New York CLT discussed its successful purchase of a 20-unit apartment building from an absentee landlord – a success story that COPA would help multiply across the borough. A 63 Tiffany Place tenant leader described their long-running fight to move their building to non-profit ownership, and how COPA would support their efforts.
NEXT STOP: Queens
In Queens, participants gathered at The Harvest Room in Jamaica, enjoyed empanadas and samosas, and learned how local CLTs are working to develop vacant and underused public land. Representatives of ReAL Edgemere CLT spoke about their work transforming more than 100 vacant city lots in Far Rockaway to affordable homes and green spaces. Western Queens CLT shared its plan for a community and manufacturing hub called the “Queensboro People’s Space” in an underused building in Long Island City – the same site New York officials committed to Amazon for its HQ2 plan that was ultimately defeated. Participants explored other strategies to secure funding and land, and how the Community Land Act would bolster those efforts.
LAST UP: Manhattan & THE BRONX
Manhattan and Bronx residents shared flan, cookies, and CLT breakthroughs at a third town hall, co-sponsored by Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala, at the Julia De Burgos Latino Cultural Center in East Harlem. After a decade of organizing, Mott Haven Port Morris Community Land Stewards secured rights from the city to transform an abandoned building into a center for health, education, and the arts. East Harlem El Barrio CLT completed renovations on two of four neglected buildings it acquired from the city in 2020, and welcomed longtime tenants back to their homes. This Land Is Ours CLT participated in a successful bid to develop 500 affordable homes on the site of a shuttered Catholic church. And Cooper Square CLT, NYC’s veteran CLT formed in 1994, is bringing two additional rent-stabilized buildings into its stewardship. A number of tenants spoke out about their ongoing fights to wrest control from predatory landlords and collectively buy their buildings, in partnership with CLTs and other nonprofits.
It’s Your Turn to Fight for the Community Land Act!
Take Action:
- Email (and call!) your Council Member and urge them to co-sponsor and fight for the passage of the Community Land Act.
- Sign your organization on to endorse the Community Land Act.
- Reach out to learn more, request a presentation, and get involved!