On Monday, December 21, 2020, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. released his “Community Land Trust Report” highlighting the importance of the Community Land Trust (CLT) as an invaluable tool to help promote and improve positive outcomes for the borough’s most disadvantaged residents.
CLTs are nonprofit, community-based organizations designed to ensure community stewardship of land, which allows residents of Bronx communities to keep pace with perpetually rising rents and the monetized housing industry, by preserving affordability while also simultaneously promoting home- or general land-ownership and incubating entrepreneurial skills.
“CLTs empower communities to decide what their neighborhoods need and what uses of property would best serve the broader region,” said Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. “CLTs allow communities to address issues that they are directly dealing with on the ground and in a specific fashion.”
The “Community Land Trust Report” also stresses the importance of empowering small businesses, incubating nonprofit organizations that are facing increasing landlord pressure, and facilitating land-occupants to become landowners; factors that will come into play as the borough looks to economically recover from the fiscal damage left behind COVID-19, as The Bronx looks forward toward a recovery plan.
“The global pandemic has left many Bronxites wondering what the future will hold when it comes to paying rent, housing, and overall displacement of long time residents of this borough,” said Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. “The Community Land Trust will enhance and support post-COVID-19 economic growth among Bronx residents, while promoting the resiliency of the borough. In order to better support healthy and sustainable community growth in The Bronx, the city must continue to prioritize the protection and strengthening of land for community use for long-time residents that call The Bronx ‘home’ as well as those looking to invest in the future of our great borough.”
The full report can be read at: https://ukj187.p3cdn2.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bxbp-clt-report.pdf