Dear Governor Kathy Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, Speaker Heastie, Senator Kavanagh, Senator Krueger, Assemblymember Pretlow, and Assemblymember Rosenthal:
We are grateful that the Governor and both Houses have maintained funding in the Executive Budget and One-House Resolutions for Community Land Trusts (CLTs)—including $1.5M in the Community Controlled Affordable Housing fund (CCAH) and $1M in the CLT Support Program fund.
At a time when New York is facing a deepening affordable housing crisis—marked by rising rents, evictions and accelerating displacement—CLTs offer one of the most effective tools to keep housing permanently affordable and address root causes of homelessness and displacement. CLTs and our allies organize for deeply and permanently affordable housing, commercial and community spaces, and other neighborhood-led development.
For that reason, we urge you to increase funding in the FY2027 budget to $2.5M for the CLT Support Program and $5M for the Community Controlled Affordable Housing Fund.
These two funds remain the only dedicated state resources supporting the infrastructure of the growing CLT movement, even as demand for deeply and permanently affordable housing continues to expand across New York.
This funding is essential to stabilize neighborhoods and combat displacement of low-income and Black and brown New Yorkers. We appreciate the Governor and the Legislature’s ongoing leadership in uplifting community-driven solutions like ours to the housing crisis. Increased funding would help our organizations scale up our capacity to bring more homes, greenspaces, and other properties into permanent affordability and community control.
Across the state, CLTs are organizing residents, acquiring buildings, and bringing land and housing into permanently affordable community control. Existing state funding is already producing transformative results:
- Western Queens CLT used funding from both programs to organize community members around vacant lots and to support the acquisition of its first property: a community food pantry with two adjoining units of housing.
- East Harlem El Barrio Community Land Trust received funding from both programs to support predevelopment work for five buildings representing 143 units of permanently affordable housing; and for board and staff development, resident engagement, and basebuilding.
- In Brooklyn, East New York CLT used CCAH to cover pre-development costs that led to the acquisition of a neglected 20-unit building, the residents of which are now working with the CLT to rehabilitate and convert the building to an HDFC cooperative.
- The Bronx CLT used funding from the CLT Support Program to conduct resident education and board development with tenants in two multifamily buildings transitioning on to the CLT.
An increase to $7.5M in total state funding would prove catalytic, equipping the more than 30 existing CLTs statewide with the resources needed to prepare acquisitions, revitalize buildings, and create affordable and accessible community spaces—keeping more families in their homes and building lasting wealth and stability in redlined and disinvested communities across the state.
We appreciate your leadership and urge you to work with us to secure deeper levels of funding in this year’s budget.
Thank you for your consideration,
1. New Economy Project
2. New York City Community Land Initiative (NYCCLI)
3. Habitat for Humanity New York City and Westchester County
4. The New York Working Families Party
5. VOCAL-NY
6. Our Bronx (formerly Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition)
7. Enterprise Community Partners
8. 287 Prospect Ave Tenant Association
9. Adirondack Community Housing Trust
10. Adirondack Roots
11. Bagchee Architects
12. Bailey’s Cafe
13. Blacklining Foundation Inc.
14. Brooklyn Level Up
15. Build Up Justice NYC
16. Carroll Gardens Association (CGA)
17. Central Harlem Community Land Trust CHCLT
18. Chhaya CDC
19. Chinatown Community Land Trust
20. Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC)
21. Churches United for Fair Housing
22. Communities Resist
23. Community Service Society of New York
24. Cooper Square Community Land Trust
25. Cooperators United for Mitchell-Lama (CU4ML)
26. Custom Collaborative
27. East Harlem/El Barrio Community Land Trust
28. East New York CLT
29. Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island
30. Feast Organization
31. Flatbush Tenant Coalition
32. Goddard Riverside
33. GrowHouse/The BLAC Land Trust
34. Housing Conservation Coordinators
35. Housing Organizers for People Empowerment (HOPE)
36. Innovative Resilience East Brooklyn Village Inc.
37. Interboro Community Land Trust
38. J. Max Bond Center for Urban Futures
39. Justice Ministries Committee, Presbytery of NYC (PCUSA)
40. Lower East Side People’s FCU
41. Met Council on Housing
42. Mott Haven Port Morris Community Land Stewards
43. New York City Network of Worker Cooperatives
44. New Yorkers for Culture & Arts
45. Northern Manhattan CLT
46. Northfield Community LDC
47. Pratt Center for Community Development
48. Queens Tenant Coalition
49. ReAL Edgemere CLT
50. Resilient Red Hook
51. Ridgewood Tenants Union
52. Safety Net Project – Urban Justice Center
53. South Bronx Unite
54. TakeRoot Justice
55. TapRoot Community Land Trust
56. Tenants & Neighbors
58. This Land Is Ours CLT
59. Trillium CLT
60. Tulinde
61. UHAB
62. Village Preservation
63. We Stay/Nos Quedamos,Inc.
64. WESPAC Foundation, Inc.
65. Westchester Cooperative Network
66. Western Queens Community Land Trust
CC:
Senator Pete Harckham
Senator Michelle Hinchey
Senator Kevin S. Parker
Senator Jose M. Serrano
Senator Jack Martins
Senator Pamela Helming
Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon
Assemblymember Donna A. Lupardo
Assemblymember Ron Kim
Assemblymember Brian Cunningham
Assemblymember Jonathan G. Jacobson
Assemblymember Chris Tague
Assemblymember John Lemondes