Community Ownership Models to Support Housing and Land Justice - September Member Call

From colonial land expropriation to the rise of the corporate landlord, Black, Indigenous, People of Color, immigrant, and low-income communities have been forced to navigate ever-changing, rigged housing systems that seek to displace and extract as many resources from communities as possible. Over the last several months, Neighborhood Funder’s Group’s Democratizing Development Program, in partnership with Tara Mohtadi, has interviewed a constellation of organizers, movement builders, and funders committed to building alternatives. In Building Collectively: 4 Takeaways from Movement-led Community Ownership Models, we explore various community ownership models, the tactical and transformative strategies necessary to foster housing justice, and examples of what it looks like for funders to be in the right relationship with grant recipients.

Community ownership is a concept that has gained popularity and traction in recent years. This upswell in interest presents a vital opportunity to expand the possibilities of community ownership, but it doesn’t come without risks. In order to prevent community ownership from being co-opted as yet another form of extractive development and investment, movement-aligned organizations offer key insights into what community ownership means and who it is meant to serve. Join us for our NFG Member call as funders and contributors of the report discuss what community ownership and land and housing justice mean today and how it creates new possibilities for the future. The discussion will also offer an opportunity for participants to share how funders can more fully resource this crucial work regardless of whether they are engaged in this work now.

Key Questions Considered:

• What principles define community ownership and why are those principles and models critical for today and the future?
• How does powerbuilding and organizing contribute to an effective ecosystem that advances community ownership and an array of strategies for land and housing justice?
• How have local histories of extraction and divestment enabled corporate landlords, developers, and real estate investors to undermine housing justice, democratic control, and tenant power?