Tag: sustainability

CURE virtual roundtable: Community-based approaches to creating sustainable affordable housing

“Community-based approaches to creating sustainable affordable housing”

Thursday, January 28th 12:30pm – 1:30pm via Zoom.

This virtual roundtable we discussed housing cooperatives, community land trusts, and shared equity housing models as viable alternative approaches to creating sustainable affordable housing and building community wealth. Non-market strategies have proliferated over recent years as many lower-income communities, especially in “hot” real estate markets like NYC, experience rising housing cost, fewer affordable housing options, and long-term housing insecurity. The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a brighter light on the chronic and dire state of housing insecurity in the US as millions of lower-income households are facing evictions and potential homelessness. In this virtual roundtable, our panelists shared their insights on the processes of creating affordable housing collectives, and discussed the role of public policy, community organizing, and housing advocacy in the quest for fair housing.

Panelists:

  • Edward Garcia is lead community organizer and involved with community development at the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition and member of the Northwest Bronx Community Land Trust.
  • Judy Meima works with tenant groups and cooperatives as an independent consultant. She previously worked at the D.C. nonprofit Mi Casa Inc. and served as the manager of the organization’s TOPA program. In a recently published article in Shelterforce, she shares lessons from 20 years of enabling tenants to buy their buildings.
  • Ruoniu (Vince) Wang is research manager at Grounded Solutions where he focuses on evaluating affordable housing policies and programs, geography of inequality, and residential mobility. He has recently co-authored a report with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy that presents the most comprehensive study of shared equity housing programs conducted to date.
  • Stephanie Rivera, Esq. is a member of the nascent East New York Community Land Trust Initiative

Moderator:

  • Natasha O. Fletcher, PhD, Assoc. Director of CURE