Frequently Asked Questions
How are we a different type of developer?
Richmond LAND is a community land trust, which is a nonprofit membership-based organization led by local, homegrown Richmond natives and residents who are committed to keeping Richmond rooted. We are a democratically governed organization, and our unique board and membership structure empowers community based decision making. As an organization, we work together to own land and put it to use for collective benefit. As an organization, we work together to empower resident-driven decisions over land use to serve collective benefit. Our S. 24th Street project was a resident-led rapid response to prevent displacement of long term, working class Richmond residents, and our North Richmond Eco-Village project builds capacity of local residents to plan an entire parcel of land to meet community needs. We are different from private developers, in that we do not acquire assets for private profit. We flip the paradigm to make people-centered development possible and provide the mechanism to keep real estate permanently affordable and accessible permanently. We are also different than traditional affordable housing development, because we separate the land from the housing and other community-serving properties. As an organization, we hold the land in trust, and what’s built or developed on the land is co-owned and co-governed directly by community members. By keeping land in trust, it is no longer dictated by the capitalist market that has historically excluded and displaced BIPOC, low-income communities. Richmond LAND also transforms typical rent payments into equity investments that support operations, maintenance and improvements, retaining that wealth in our community instead of losing that capital to a disconnected, profit-seeking landlord. In this way, we address the root problems that lead to poverty, neighborhood disinvestment, gentrification, and displacement by fundamentally changing the development process, turning rent into resources for our community. This is what transformative real estate looks like.
Why partner with Richmond LAND?
To enable community members to come together to steward land, housing, and other resources for the benefit of working class communities.
To permanently protect these critical community resources from private development.
To ensure that Richmond remains accessible, sustainable, and vibrant for generations to come.
To live out commitments to reconciliation, reparations, justice. To return land to peoples who were dispossessed from it or who, because of discriminatory practices, have been excluded from real estate ownership and wealth building opportunities.
To join in solidarity to build staying power in the place we call home. To build relationships with neighbors and organize with people just like you who believe in preserving and cultivating bright futures here in Richmond.
Is co-owning or investing into a Community Land Trust risky?
No, a CLT is a much more stable investment than the private market. During the Great Recession, CLT homeowners consistently outperformed their counterparts in the private market. Foreclosure and delinquency rates were one-tenth of those in the traditional market at the peak of the crisis. Unlike many of their private-market counterparts, these residents were not displaced from their homes or their neighborhoods. Foreclosure rates among CLT properties actually declined during the crisis, while it was still growing for homes in the traditional housing market. Richmond LAND provides “counter-cyclical stewardship” which is a stabilizing force amidst market fluctuations.
How does Richmond LAND collaborate with members and residents?
Relationships of mutuality: We are directly invested in the success of the land and housing justice movement, which includes the thriving of all members of Richmond LAND, as we are not separate. Our liberation is bound together. We are interdependent.
Resident leadership: Our members hold key leadership and decision making positions in the organization through active participation in meetings and events. Additionally, at least one-third of our board of directors is elected by and composed of resident members.
Capacity building: We offer and will continue to develop curricula to support residents with the following –
political education to analyze the conditions and causes of the existing housing crisis to build better strategy for winning campaigns
education on collective housing models that teaches people ways they can own land together
maintain relationships with organizations that offer pre-purchase homeownership education
post-purchase education for how to co-own/ co-steward housing and othe rimprovements on CLT land
tenant support services (we are actively in discussion about this but this is something we’ve supported members with in the past)
cultivating and maintaining relationships with lenders who can provide financial products to lessee members looking to purchase buildings in our portfolio.
Building Power Fellowshup: our capacity building program that supports everyday community leaders understand the real estate development process, conceptualize people-centered development projects, and engage with the built environment as a point of intervention to transform communities.
leadership development, organizing, basebuilding skills
People power: We leverage the power of community to co-own, co-govern, and co-steward land, housing, and other community serving resources. Our residents are stakeholders, investors and stewards. We build power through distributed, democratized, community-driven control.
How does Richmond LAND leverage investments more efficiently than traditional affordable housing models?
Whenever public or private funds are used to subsidize the initial affordability of Richmond LAND projects, those scarce subsidies are protected and preserved in those units to keep them affordable forever. In contrast to other models, policies, and programs, where subsidies are either claimed by the property’s owner at resale (subsidy removal) or re-claimed by the public agency that invested them (subsidy recapture), Richmond LAND locks subsidies in place, forever, (subsidy retention) for permanent affordability, without the need to continually reinvest public and private dollars.
I want to own my own home. Why would I want or need to buy my home through the trust?
Homeownership is an incredible opportunity but it comes with significant responsibility and can be financially out of reach, particularly for BIPOC who have been historically disenfranchised and prohibited from building the kind of wealth and equity necessary to retain assets. One missed pay period, one emergency, and the threat of foreclosure is imminent. While acquiring a home may be possible, retaining and maintaining a property can be extremely challenging. CLT homeownership is an alternative to renting that provides opportunity for people to build up wealth and equity instead of losing their hard-earned cash to a landlord. CLT homeownership provides people with increased stability and security. CLT home owners have control of their homes, benefit from stable monthly housing costs, and the opportunity to accumulate equity. CLT homeowners can also take advantage of income tax deductions for their property taxes and the interest paid on their mortgage.
How do we define Homegrown?
Our use of homegrown describes residents that have lived in Richmond and surrounding communities the majority of their life. This also includes people who have been displaced from the geographical area, but consider Richmond and West Contra Costa areas their home. Homegrown residents have tended to the community for generations. Shaped by diaspora and migration, home is more than a place it is a living ecosystem, and the effort to grow grassroots power of homegrown residents is about place-making and place-keeping.
How do we define community-controlled land?
Community-controlled land means reclaiming land in our neighborhoods, removing it from the profit-driven cycle, and ensuring the ongoing capacity of people who are part of a community (particularly homegrown residents) to make meaningful decisions about the use of land. This is one of the key strategies at the foundation of building power, because when land is in our hands we can disrupt forces of disposession, displacement, and disempowerment, and democratize land and resources to leverage our right to self-determination. We can decide what gets built or developed in our communities to support sustainability, vitality, and serve collective long-term needs. When housing costs skyrocket, when our neighbors and friends are pushed out, we struggle. When we can flip this paradigm, we can stabilize ourselves in the place we love, build wealth, contribute to our communities. Community-controlled land gives us the freedom to dream and act upon cultivating brighter futures.
What is a grassroot organization?
Grassroots organizations are powered by homegrown residents and working class people that are rooted in their local context that grow their impact through collective action and participation.