The Power of Community Stewardship of Land
I. What is community stewardship of land?
Community Stewardship of Land (CSL) transforms local land and housing from commodities into shared resources for community prosperity. CSL is a new-yet-age-old way of thinking about land use that centers people and local communities instead of profit and speculation.
Within a CSL framework, Black and Indigenous People of Color permanently own or control land for long-term, collective self-determination - primarily through land trusts, cooperatives, and other non-profit models. We also steward land holistically to meet all our housing, small business, cultural, service, food security, and recreational needs.
CSL is more than just who owns what, but how. Community stewards of land are people who have relationships to the land, practice democratic decision making, and ensure permanent community benefits for generations.
Community stewards of land have relationships to the land, practice democratic decision making, and ensure permanent community benefits for generations.
We believe CSL is the only antidote to unending cycles of displacement for BIPOC communities. Only with our homes and neighborhoods protected from real estate speculation can we withstand the global forces that have dispossessed BIPOC communities of their places for hundreds of years. The more land we take off the real estate market and into collective ownership, the more stable our communities will be, now and far into the future.
Finally, CSL is the missing ingredient to affordable housing policy – we cannot win the race to build affordable homes in our region unless communities that are already affordable can be stabilized. We cannot rely only on the economic system that got us into the crisis to get us out.
II. Community Stewardship of Land is a framework that is guided by a set of six principles.
There have been and are now many paths to achieve Community Stewardship of Land. In this moment, we offer a set up six specific principles that can be used to assess how strategies, development projects, and proposed public policy advance CSL or not. These principles help distinguish CSL from both real estate speculation and subsidized affordable housing built by developers. We thank and honor the many, many collective efforts to steward land for BIPOC communities in the U. S. over generations that have inspired these principles.*
*These principles have been developed through the work of Puget Sound Sage with feedback from cohort members of the Community Real Estate Stewardship Team.
1. For Community, Not Profit
The land is a resource to be shared and cared for; it is life, culture, and community sustaining; it is not for profit.
2. Collective Ownership and Self-Determination
Local communities, rather than an individual or for-profit corporation, together owns or controls the land.
3. Permanent Community Purpose
Land is designated to meet the needs of a community for the long-term, building intergenerational economic and cultural vitality.
4. Democratic Community Governance
Land stewards––those who live, work, or cultivate the land or who share deep connection and history with the land--make collective decisions for how the land is cared for, sustained, and by whom.
5. Community Power
Land stewards engage in, and provide, ongoing training, education and organizing resources so the people in relationship with the land can effectively remember their power and participate in decision-making.
6. Ecological Well-Being
The health of the planet, and the ability for future generations to thrive on the land, guide how the land is stewarded.
III. The Vision for Community Stewardship Of Land
Many of our BIPOC neighborhoods have experienced multiple waves of gentrification and displacement, and we have watched our neighbors and communities get pushed out multiple times. With the increasing price of land, and the extreme vulnerabilities created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the time is now for all of us across King County to work together to make Community Stewardship of Land a reality.
We want a King County where 25% of land in neighborhoods with high risk of displacement can be transformed into community stewardship.
Organizations and communities across the Puget Sound region have been doing the work of Community Stewardship of Land for years, building the infrastructure, advocating for policies, acquiring land and doing the hard work of community-building. We are ready to increase our work, but this work is not easy and we need our local governments to help us build a rich ecosystem of organizations and resources to be able to do it.
IV. What Can Our Local Governments Do?
Create a path for tenant and community ownership by passing a Tenant/Community Opportunity to Purchase Act.
Create opportunities for BIPOC communities to secure land and buildings by robustly funding acquisition and preservation funds, and resourcing community-led acquisition strategies.
Fund the capacity building needed to make Community Stewardship of Land possible.
Increase BIPOC power in planning and development by establishing local planning and accountability through equitable development zones.
Ensure that any public land transfer occurs within a community stewardship of land framework or has significant community benefits.
Discourage property flipping for profit through a tax on certain real estate transactions.
Update city and county Comprehensive Plans to include Community Stewardship of Land policies and goals, as well as making anti-displacement a priority.
V. Join the Movement
We’re growing a vibrant movement to take as much land as possible off the speculative market and under community stewardship, and we need you. Whether you’re a policymaker, organization or individual, endorse the Community Stewardship of Land framework and work to build a King County and Puget Sound region where our land is permanently for our communities.