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The long-term health, stability, and prosperity of the Bay Area is actively being threatened by displacement, forced relocation, and homelessness. Solving the housing affordability crisis in the Bay Area requires comprehensive visioning and innovative action towards community and systems change. There is no silver bullet. Instead cities and counties must invest in a full ecosystem of housing policies to ensure production, preservation, and protections. Housing advocates, attorneys and legal aid groups, community land trusts and residents are organizing regionally to initiate capacity building and policy advocacy that promotes community and resident control of land and housing to achieve permanent affordability. The Peoples Land and Housing Convening will bring together regional policymakers, practitioners, leaders in finance and philanthropy, and affordable housing advocates along with national experts to share knowledge, models, and capacity building resources to jump start the movement for resident-centered solutions to the crisis.
Community and Tenant ownership models including Community Land Trusts (CLTs) and Limited-Equity Housing Cooperatives (LEHCs) along with policies including the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) offer resident-centered anti-displacement strategies and support the permanent stabilization of neighborhoods undergoing gentrification. Bay Area communities must act and the time is now to adopt and resource common sense community solutions to ensure permanent affordability. Join us November 28th and 29th, 2018 in Oakland as we call in all sectors to devise permanent solutions to the affordable housing crisis.

AGENDA / MATERIALS / VIDEO

DAY 1: WED Nov 28th at the Greenlining Institute (360 14th Street, Oakland)

9-9:30am: Introductions and Intended Outcomes

Welcome & Convening Overview: Zachary Murray, Oakland Community Land Trust

Community Agreements & Expectations: Fernando Echeverria, East Bay Community Law Center

General Resources:

9:30-10am: Grounding with Sogorea Te’ Land Trust

Presentation by Corrina Gould, Co-Founder – Sogorea Te’ Land Trust

Resources:

10am-Noon: Opening Panel – WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Film Screening: Arc of Justice: The Rise, Fall, & Rebirth of a Beloved Community

Introduced by Mark Lipman, Producer/Director/Cinematographer/Editor

Panel Discussion

Lunch Provided by The Town Kitchen

1-3pm: Financing Permanent Affordability & Community-Controlled Housing

Using restorative economics as a lens, this seminar will convene diverse stakeholders and practitioners to discuss and strategize around the deployment of capital resources to support and bring to scale models of community and resident-controlled housing, including community land trusts and co-ops. Participants will learn about existing models of shared equity finance as well as new and innovative finance opportunities in order to understand feasibility and cost efficiency of permanently affordable housing solutions. 

Participants

3:15-5pm: Building Community Power to Maintain Permanent Affordability: Community Land Trusts and Housing Cooperatives

This seminar will provide both an overview of CLT models and a discussion of specific innovative actions that CLTs and community groups are undertaking to prevent displacement, build greater community engagement, establish partnerships with local governments and new alliances for policy advocacy, and financing strategies to secure land and housing resources for the permanent benefit and control of low-income communities.

Participants

5-7:30pm: NETWORKING HAPPY HOUR

Join us for moment to reflect on the day and connect with other convening participants.

Maker’s Loft / 308 13th Street, Oakland

DAY 2: THU Nov 29th at the California Endowment (2000 Franklin St, Oakland)

9am-Noon: Introduction to Limited Equity Housing Cooperatives

Led by the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB) from New York City

  • Andrew Reicher, Executive Director
  • Alex Roesch, Assistant Director of Homeownership

Presentation Slides (pdf)

This 3 hour housing cooperative session will fully explain the limited-equity housing cooperative model, the history and benefits of co-ops, and will include activity break-outs to get local practitioners and residents to begin envisioning how housing co-ops can serve their needs and fit into their local contexts.

1pm-3pm: Building a Local Housing Preservation Ecosystem: Tenant Opportunity to Purchase (TOPA) and Local Policy

Since the adoption of the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) in the early 1980s, Washington DC has built a local infrastructure to support affordable housing preservation at both large and small scales. Staff from DC Department of Housing and Community Development (DC-HCD) will discuss the application and legacy of TOPA and provide an overview of the District’s range of preservation oriented policies and strategies including the Preservation Strike force, local funding systems, and collaborations with nonprofit developers and tenant advocacy groups.

Participants

  • Amber Gruner, Program Coordinator – Housing Counseling Services (Washington DC) / Presentation slides (pdf)
  • Danilo Pelletiere, Senior Policy Advisor- District of Columbia, Office of Housing and Community Development (DC HCD) / Presentation Slides (pdf)
  • Erin Wilson, Deputy Manager, Development Finance Division – DC HCD / Presentation Slides (pdf)
  • Moderated by Hewot Shankute & Seema Rupani, East Bay Community Law Center’s Community Economic Justice Clinic

3-5pm: Planning and Strategy Session

Facilitated by Nwamaka Agbo, we will collectively reflect upon the discussions and presentations of the two-day convening and work towards developing both short and long-term goals for building a movement for resident-controlled housing on community-owned land.

PHOTOS

PLANNING TEAM

SPONSORS & SUPPORTERS