Local nonprofit LiBRE will begin hosting meetings to spread the word about Long Beach’s community land trust in January.
When Long Beach announced its search for an organization to create the city’s first-ever community land trust, it felt like divine timing for local nonprofit Long Beach Residents Empowered (LiBRE).
The tenant’s rights group has had plenty of practice protecting renters, advocating for community power through informative meetings and fighting for affordable housing and higher wages through protests and speaking at city council meetings.
Their most popular programs are workshops informing Long Beach residents of their rights as renters, including what to do if they receive an eviction notice and what the city lacks in renter’s protection compared to neighboring cities.
A community land trust is a nonprofit that essentially functions as a developer and landlord; one that prioritizes affordable housing and community needs over profit.
For the past few years though, the team at LiBRE has found themselves as the students rather than the teachers, as they’ve been learning everything they can about a community land trust and how to start one in Long Beach. Team members have been attending workshops and conferences held by the California Community Land Trust Network as well as visiting sites around the country to see them in action.
“With or without the City, this is something we’ve been wanting to start,” said Sylvana Uribe, deputy director with LiBRE.
LiBRE felt confident when Long Beach announced $800,000 in funding for the organization who could lay the groundwork for a community land trust. They applied for the two-year funds, and the City announced in September that LiBRE was chosen to create this community-centric housing initiative.
So, now what? The Signal Tribune spoke to LiBRE about their plans for the next two years surrounding Long Beach’s first-ever community land trust, and how residents can get involved now.
What is a Community Land Trust?
A community land trust is a nonprofit that essentially functions as a developer and landlord; one that prioritizes affordable housing and community needs over profit. The nonprofit acquires a piece of land and leases it for a renewable term of 99 years back to its residents, ensuring stable affordability for years to come.
The first community land trust, New Communities, was created in 1969 to support Black farmers as the result of a collaborative effort between farmers and Civil Rights activists. Historically, community land trusts are meant to address housing inequity.
There’s no one-size-fits-all model for community land trusts, as it shifts to a city’s specific needs. Projects can be single-family homes, multi-family homes, apartments, etc. and can include community resources, urban farms, gallery spaces and more.
Since the land itself is being leased, rather than the properties on it, the homes remain affordable under the terms agreed upon no matter who owns, develops or sells them.
This is a drastic difference from the way Long Beach has traditionally approached affordable housing development, Housing and Neighborhood Services Bureau Manager Meggan Sorensen explained.
“We [Long Beach] provide funding and/or convey land that we’ve purchased for the future development of affordable housing restricted to that use for 55 years, whereas the land trust model, typically that land can only be used for affordable housing in perpetuity,” Sorensen said.
Once the community land trust is operating, it continues to function in service of the people who live there and around the development. Normally, a three-prong board is established consisting of residents in the land trust, surrounding community members and the general public. The board decides what improvements are needed and who to contract for those services.
“It really will come down to what the voting members and participants in the community land trust want to see here in Long Beach.”
– Sylvana Uribe, deputy director with LiBRE
Long Beach Program Specialist Mary Daou said that certain state and federal funding opportunities favor community land trusts, which they hope to take advantage of to create more affordable housing in the city.
Over 20 land trusts are part of California’s network, spanning from Irvine and Los Angeles to San Francisco and Oakland.
What will this look like in Long Beach?
Since LiBRE already put years of preparation into the project, they’ve already licensed their nonprofit: the Housing for All Long Beach Community Land Trust.
Now that the community land trust is its own nonprofit, LiBRE’s role is to hire staff, hold funds and “get it off the ground.” Housing for All Long Beach has an established board made up of renters, urban planners, lawyers, leaders from neighborhood groups and Steve Gerhardt of Walk Long Beach.
Sorenson said the City will continue to help the community land trust, Housing For All Long Beach, apply for grants and identify funding while the Economic Development Department will monitor public and private land that could serve the project.
“We’ve set it up to be very hands off,” Sorenson said. “The City was just supposed to identify someone capable and help them through the seed phase.”
The team at LiBRE has studied and visited many types of community land trusts over the past few years, so they’re not lacking inspiration. Some models that stood out to them were ones that included community resources as part of the housing model, such as a space for local artists to live and work, green spaces or a low-cost clinic for residents. Another inspiration was a community land trust in Oakland that turned the land back to its Indigenous residents.
Housing For All Long Beach can acquire an empty plot of land to develop or one that already has a building or multiple homes; it can serve low-income renters or offer home ownership and a wide variety in between.
“It really will come down to what the voting members and participants in the community land trust want to see here in Long Beach,” Uribe said.
When will this Happen?
LiBRE is currently in the business planning stage, Uribe said, which means meetings with consultants and experts to explore what’s possible in Long Beach. The City funding will help the nonprofit meet with and hire the appropriate people and educate the public on what’s coming.
Uribe said they’re also studying what parts of the city are most in need of a community land trust. The organization is already considering West and Central Long Beach since they’re both areas with high rental rates, low income and large populations.
LiBRE’s goal is to have a site determined for acquisition by the end of the two-year seed funding.
Beginning next year, LiBRE will host a slew of community meetings to educate people on what a community land trust is and get an idea of what they want to see.
“What we’re really doing is asking residents, what it is that they want to see preserved in our community or what is it that’s missing,” Uribe said.
LiBRE will announce its schedule of workshops on its website and on social media in January. Some workshops will be held at neighborhood groups and some will be hosted independently, but all will include food and interpretation services.
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