Topic outline

  • Overview

    Intro to Community Land Trusts & Cooperative Ownership: Histories and Legal Models

    Taught by noted activist and scholar Dr. James Garrett and the NCLT's Director of Operations and Development, Francis McIlveen. 

    This workshops includes:

    A Short History of Key Cooperative Movements:

    •     Cooperatives: (Communist/Utopian/Communal and their visionaries)
    •     Credit Unions/Public Banks-US & Europe
    •     Prominent Examples of Black Community Cooperatives & Historical Resources
    •     Community Land Trusts: Informal and Formal (New Communities)
    •     Intentional Communities (Secular & Religious based)

    An Overview of Current Legal Models for Shared Ownership of Land & Housing. Models include:  

    • Co-housing
    • Tenancy In Common (TIC)
    • Condo Associations (HOAs)
    • Limited Equity, Community (aka Zero) Equity, & Market-Rate Cooperatives 
    • Collectives



  • Legal Models for Resident Ownership

    View Francis Mcllveen's CCOI Presentation, Intro to CLTs & Collective Forms of Home Ownership, here:
    Presented on April 22, 2018 at Liberating Ourselves Locally 

    ***insert Francis presentation slides with audio overlay here****

    Download PDF of Presentation Slides Here. 

    Presenter Bio:
    Francis McIlveen:     Since 2003, Francis has worked at the Northern California Land Trust (NCLT) in multiple capacities, he is currently the Director of Operations and Development. He handles the real estate transactions: helping low-income families buy and sell CLT homes, acquisition & development of new projects (including the financing), as well as handling donations of property. He also serves as the Real Estate Broker for NCLT’s Community Realty. In addition, Francis provides technical assistance and training to new CLTs, coops and homeowners associations. Lastly, Francis provides advocacy to further the mission of Community Land Trusts in the realms of local & state legislation, the institutional finance world, and regulatory & public policy—typically under the auspices of the Bay Area Consortium of Community Land Trusts, and the California Community Land Trust Network.

  • Intro to CLTs and Cooperative Histories

    View Dr. James Garrett's April 22, 2018 CCOI presentation, History of Cooperative Communities in the U.S. and Informal Land Trusts:

     ***Insert Jimmy's slideshow with audio presentation overlay here.***** 

    Download PDF of Presentation Slides Here

    Presenter Bio: Dr. James P. Garrett has been involved in struggles for the human rights and self-determination of African peoples and of all humanity for more than 50 years. As a member of SNCC and CORE in Mississippi and California in the 1960’s, he learned to develop community based cooperative movements including shared living and farmers markets. In 1975, Dr. Garrett established a cooperative of some 30 farmers in San Bernardino California to supply fresh produce to Chino Men’s prison. From 1976-1981, while a professor at Howard University, Dr. James Garrett served as Chair of the Washington, DC Citywide Housing Coalition, a 12,000 member, mass based rent and cooperative housing organization. James Garrett has also worked on several cooperative projects that are international in scope. He is co-founder of the non-profit/NGO, Global Community Advancement Center. GCAC has ongoing cooperative humanitarian projects in Vietnam including Peoples Hospital in Bien An Province and a rice cooperative supported pre-natal clinic near the port city of Vungtau.

    Dr. Garrett served as member and Chair of the BOD of the Cooperative Center Federal Credit Union in Berkeley, CA from 2008-2015. CCFCU has a long a storied history in its financing of cooperative housing projects. Dr. Garrett has continued to conduct workshops and seminars on the practice of organizing cooperative community land trust projects in the US.



     

    • Cohort Homework Session Prompts

      1. How do these histories of cooperative communities resonate with you, how do they inform your relationship to land and place?  What histories do you hold that you'd like to weave into these offerings? 

      2. Begin to reflect on which legal model(s) for shared ownership may be the most in alignment with the financial and political goals of your co-ownership project.

        Some questions to discuss: What is the desired physical infrastructure for common & private spaces? How many people will reside in the housing & who is the space oriented towards (i.e. qt/pocs, families w/ children, folks with disabilities, religious/spiritual practitioners etc.) What kind of activities do you envision having on the land/housing? Are they income generating activities? All of these questions (and more) will inform which legal entity formation(s) would work for your project. 

      • More Resources on Histories & Current Movements

        Other Notable Resources on CLT & Cooperative Histories & Contemporary Movements:


        Video & Films: 

        Roots of the CLT: Origins and Evolution of the Community Land Trust in the United States Part 1 of 4:
        (By National Community Land Trust Network) View whole series here. 
         
          

          

        Arc of Justice Film 
        Arc of Justice traces the remarkable journey of New Communities, Inc. (NCI) in southwest Georgia, a story of racial justice, community organizing, and perseverance in the face of enormous obstacles.

        Holding Ground: The Rebirth of Dudley Street
        Documentary about the The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative which gained national recognition as residents fought to close down illegal dumps, gain unprecedented control of land in Massachusetts and created a comprehensive plan to rebuild the fabric of their community.

        Beyond Recognition (Opening Clip) - A Film about the founding of the first women-led urban Indigenous land trust, The Sogorea Te Land Trust.
        https://vimeo.com/111030450   

        Fruit Belt Community Land Trust in Buffalo, NY
        Communities in Buffalo recently won community control of land using the Community Land Trust model. https://vimeo.com/202212415

        Websites Resources:

        ROOTS & BRANCHES: A Gardener's Guide to the Origins and Evolution of the Community Land Trust 
        http://www.cltroots.org/

        National Community Land Trust Network Tools
        http://cltnetwork.org/tools/

        Books & Essays: 

        Economic Cooperation Among Negroes, WEB DuBois, Atlanta, Univ. 1907

        Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice 
        by Jessica Gordon Nembhard, Penn Stte Press, 2014 9.

        Europe’s Utopias of Peace, 1815-1951, Bloomsbury Academic

        Race and the Remaking of the Rural South: Delta Cooperative Farm and Providence Farm in Jim Crow-Era Mississippi Robert Hunt Ferguson: Chapel Hill, 2112