CITY WIRE: THE BLOG
Report: Capture Some of the Boom in Inwood Real-Estate for Land Trusts
Sadef Ali Kully |
A report recommends using the revenue from tax-increment financing to fund community land trusts.
A report recommends using the revenue from tax-increment financing to fund community land trusts.
Authors say that the nation’s current housing system fails communities and that political leaders must bring alternative models to scale.
The city announced its selection of developers for the Inwood library site on Tuesday, two weeks before Community Board 12 will vote on the Inwood rezoning.
As Manhattan Community Board 12 considers the city’s proposed rezoning, a number of other neighborhood groups are pushing for an alternative plan.
Large and small organizations have envisioned ways that, with the right resources and city policies, the city’s nascent community land trusts could come to encompass thousands of apartments.
A bill codifying community land trusts into city law, and two others that are part of the Housing Not Warehousing Act, were among the bills that came up for a vote at the Council’s last session Tuesday.
‘CLTs achieve a delicate balance of providing families with the opportunities of homeownership, like building equity and providing stability, while also protecting public resources in perpetuity.’
‘The city is embracing and supporting this radical model that will allow community members to control their own neighborhoods, prevent speculation, incubate community-owned businesses, and keep housing permanently affordable to its poorest residents.’
The city will distribute a $1.65 million grant from Enterprise Community Partners to three community land trusts and to fund a technical assistance program to assist many new ones.
Not that foreclosure is the only thing city homeowners, or policymakers, have to worry about.