About the Theme
“Too often we see improvement strategies that improve the neighborhood and move poor people out.”
John Barros
DSNI started by organizing against illegal dumping in the 1980s with its “Don’t Dump on Us” campaign. Having had some success, it moved on to fighting for a say in what happened to the 1300 vacant lots (which had been the dumping grounds) that had resulted from arson for profit. The new rallying cry was “Take a Stand. Own the Land.” Their organizing bore fruit and with the help of the city they got control over the vacant land in the Dudley Triangle area, an area in the center of the community in which half of the 60 acres of land were vacant. After careful deliberation, DSNI’s membership chose to create a community land trust (CLT) called Dudley Neighbors, Inc.. Their goals were to ensure that people would not be priced out of the neighborhood as it improved and that the community maintained control of the land through a CLT’s democratic governance structure.
In a community land trust, the land remains in trust with a nonprofit organizational steward and only the buildings are sold. When a CLT develops homes for sale, as DNI did, it sells the house at a below-market price and in exchange, homeowners agree to resale restrictions on the price so the homes will stay affordable going forward for future buyers. Today Dudley Neighbors Inc. has 32 acres of land with 226 units of housing; commercial space; a playground; a mini-orchard and garden; and a community greenhouse and urban farm, both managed by The Food Project, a community partner.
Questions for Class Discussion
- Community land trusts are often considered primarily a protection against gentrification, a way to preserve some affordability in a rapidly appreciating market. But when DSNI launched its land trust the neighborhood was burnt out and devastated—exactly the conditions under which it is often difficult to make the case for limiting equity to preserve future affordability. Did they make the right choice, or should those people who took a chance on the neighborhood over 20 years ago be able to cash in now as Boston’s hot market pushes into the Dudley area?
- Dwayne and Dacia start off ecstatic and later in the film they have complaints about the land trust, if minor ones. How do you think their experience of homeownership would have been different if they had tried to purchase a home in the traditional, “fee simple” way, with no land trust involved?
- Dudley Neighbors Inc. does not do the actual housing development on the land trust. It turns that over to developers—nonprofit and for-profit—retaining the role of steward for itself. Why do you think they make that separation?
- Given the foreclosure pattern that the Dudley neighborhood saw, should they be actively trying to increase the percentage of homes in the land trust? How might they go about doing this? What other strategies are there to protect the stability of a residential neighborhood?
- The relationship between police and communities of color is often strained. In the film we see land trust homeowners talking about wanting faster police response and more police attention. Did this surprise you? Why or why not? Do you think becoming a homeowner changed their willingness to work with law enforcement?
- The land trust had minimal foreclosures, in striking contrast with very high rates in the surrounding neighborhood during the foreclosure crisis. This was true across the country, meaning a land trust mortgage should be a very safe investment compared to a traditional mortgage. Yet banks are often reluctant to make these loans, in part because the deed restriction survives foreclosure. Are the lenders being short-sighted? How would you try to address it from the lender’s perspective? The land trusts’?
- The data shown on this page shows an effective decrease in median income, a modest rise in the percentage of white residents in the neighborhood since DSNI was founded, and a decrease in the percent of residents under 18 (though it is still high). What do you make of these numbers? Do you think they imply anything about the work of DSNI, or are they largely a result of outside factors? In either case do they have implications for actions going forward?
Further Reading/Watching
Film/Video
Related films by Mark Lipman and Leah Mahan:
- “Streets of Dreams,” a documentary that looks at community land trusts in communities of color in New Orleans, Atlanta, Delray Beach, and Durham.
http://openstudioproductions.com/streets-of-dreams/ - Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek, a documentary about a coastal Mississippi community settled by former slaves that struggles against urban sprawl, industrial contamination and disaster.
http://www.ComeHellorHighWaterFilm.com
“Homes and Hands,” a classic video introduction to community land trusts.
https://www.newday.com/film/homes-hands-community-land-trusts-action
This Land Is Our Land.
http://landofopportunityinteractive.com/#/video/land-our-land
(Land Trust related excerpts from Gaining Ground, with supplemental information.)
“Best of Both Worlds: Permanent affordability and asset building might seem at first blush to be contradictory goals for a low-income homeownership program, but new research says in fact they can be achieved together.” By Rick Jacobus, Shelterforce.
http://www.shelterforce.org/article/2111/best_of_both_worlds/
The Community Land Trust Reader, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy (for in-depth further reading).
http://www.lincolninst.edu/pubs/1766_The-Community-Land-Trust-Reader
“How One Boston Neighborhood Stopped Gentrification in Its Tracks,” Yes! Magazine 2015.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/cities-are-now/how-one-boston-neighborhood-stopped-gentrification-in-its-tracks
National Community Land Trust Network.
http://www.cltnetwork.org
“No Foreclosures Here,” by Holly Sklar, Yes!
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/sustainable-happiness/no-foreclosures-here
“Stewardship Works: Community land trusts succeed in curing delinquencies and preventing foreclosures, and the numbers show it,” by Emily Thaden and John Davis, Shelterforce, 2010.
http://www.shelterforce.org/article/2080/stewardship_works/
“What’s the Point of Shared-Equity Homeownership in Weak Market Areas?” Shelterforce.
http://www.shelterforce.org/article/3081/the_answer_171/
Notes for Educators and Facilitators
- On the DVD, refer to the “Development Without Displacement” module for relevant film clips.
- Students can watch the land trust–related sections of the film on their own via the Land of Opportunity This Land Is Our Land multi-media video (http://landofopportunityinteractive.com/#/video/land-our-land). This platform has “triggers” at various points in the film where you can get more information about what’s being shown. The main This Land Is Our Land video includes the land trust and foreclosure themes in Gaining Ground, and includes supplemental information about land trusts, foreclosures, and bank accountability activism, as well as links to clips of the parts of Gaining Ground that follow Dacia and Dwayne’s home buying journey and an interview with a long-time land trust homeowner.
- For advanced students studying housing finance or municipal finance, have them view “Understanding Subsidy Retention” (http://www.burlingtonassociates.com/home-slides/understanding-subsidiary-retention) and then have them calculate the difference between a standard downpayment grant program and subsidy retention for a sample house and households.
- A CLT balances individual/ family interests with overall community interests. You can have students debate the advantages and disadvantages of a CLT arrangement for families and for the larger community.