Creating and Supporting Community Land Trusts
TakeRoot provides legal and technical support to grassroots organizations creating Community Land Tursts in order to preserve long-term affordability and economic investment in their communities.
TakeRoot provides legal and technical support to grassroots organizations creating Community Land Tursts in order to preserve long-term affordability and economic investment in their communities.
TakeRoot’s Equitable Neighborhoods team takes on matters where organizing groups are enforcing zoning and environmental laws. Examples of past campaigns supported by litigation: Chhaya CDC, Minkwon Center for Community Action and the Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce v. NYC Department
This report includes a set of policy recommendations focusing on four principles for the development of Jerome Avenue: Real Affordable Housing, Good Jobs and Local Hire, Strong Anti-Harassment and Anti-Displacement Policies, and Real Community Participation.
The latest city budget includes $750,000 to grow an underutilized housing model that creates affordable homes in rapidly gentrifying communities—a major win for housing advocates. The funds will go toward incubating community land trusts (CLTs).
Private development planned on the Holmes Towers public housing site on the Upper East Side will restart its community engagement process as the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) has withdrawn its Section 18 application from HUD.
“Today, the BSA got it wrong,” said Paula Segal, senior attorney with Equitable Neighborhoods Practice at the Community Development Project, who is working with QNU. “The City cannot allow developers to bury big box stores underground to skirt...”
The de Blasio administration has postponed plans to develop private apartment buildings on a public housing site in East Williamsburg, signaling another challenge in the city’s quest to generate revenue for the struggling New York City Housing Authority.
Building a case like this takes thousands of hours, Segal says, working with community organizers to prepare affidavits, gathering evidence to build a legal argument, responding to questions from the judge. Consistency is everything.
“...And we humans living nearby will likely see our homes damaged or destroyed come the next big storm.”
“The danger is, if we don’t challenge Target, national retailers will think they could put department stores anywhere in the city,” said Paula Segal, attorney for QNU. “We will no longer have residential districts. It will just be mall NYC.”