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Community Co-Ownership Initiative

NOTE: POCSHN is no longer in an active partnership with CCOI

The Community Co-Ownership Initiative (CCOI) was a partnership between the Northern California Land Trust and the People of Color Sustainable Housing Network (POCSHN), along with other members of the Bay Area CLT Consortium (BACCLT) to diversify and expand access to shared ownership and resident controlled housing through leadership training, development of new financing tools, and technical support.

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CCOI participants have the opportunity to:

  • Learn the basics of cooperative housing and resident controlled ownership models

  • Gain skills in group process, visioning & decision-making

  • Receive technical assistance on legal and financial strategies for shared ownership.

  • Grow partnerships with Community Land Trusts on developing co-ownership projects in the Bay Area.

  • Cultivate relationships for common vision for land and housing

  • All with indigenous, low-income and people of color-led and centered housing and land projects

 

Workshops for collective land stewardship began in 2018.  Core Workshop topics included: Introductory Workshops that covered political education, team building, and an overview of legal models for collective ownership of land and housing.  Financing and Funding collectively owned land and housing with existing people of color-led models, and support to create a project proposal.

 

At every workshop, space and activities were held for people to connect with each other.  It is a core understanding that projects happen with solid groups who hold a common vision as well as time/experience-built synergy. A cohesive and ready group is needed to move any project forward . 

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Online Learning Platform

Workshop recordings, slides and resources can be accessed on the online learning platform, https://learn.nclt.org/  Log in as a guest.  Workshop content online includes the basics of site assessment, group governance & decision making, legal structures, and financial strategies for cooperative ownership and stewardship.​

Groups & Individuals may submit a Co-Ownership Project Proposal:

In addition to attending workshops, exploring the online learning platform, you may create a project proposal!  We provide a steam-lined process in hopes of easing what may seem to be a daunting and far-fetched task of putting a vision to words.  We ask people to write a paragraph each on the following.

  1. Who are the people and community involved?

  2. What is the project?

  3. Why?  project vision

  4. Where/when? Site, timeline

  5. How much? What do you know about costs

  6. Community ‘capital’? What are the resources the community about can bring- networks, funding, community.

Please email proposals or reach out for support to a CCOI co-coordinator.  We would then set up a time to meet for a technical assistance session. 

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Residents of Existing Co-Ownership Projects:  We hold specific training sessions for deepening, maintaining and supporting existing CLT and cooperative resident ownership projects. We are also looking for folks to join us as peer-trainers to provide insight for new co-ownership project cohorts. If you live in a co-ownership project and would like to get involved, please contact us here. 

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Land Owners:  Do you want to donate your land or need help stewarding your land?  Please see How to Donate Your Land for Community Power flier and contact Marissa Ashkar, staff with Northern California Land Trust and People of Color Sustainable Housing Network (510) 548-7878 x341

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*We understand this is systems based change and is for the medium and long term vision.  For immediate housing support here is a list of resources and assistance programs, as well as rental and security deposit assistance in Alameda County and the POCSHN facebook page is where people may find postings of available housing or people with housing needs.  Sometimes groups with a common interest can form in this space as well.​

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Key Project Focus Areas

 

Training / Leadership Development: Education and training is at the heart of our program. By training community members at risk of displacement in the basics of site assessment, group decision making, leadership skills and financial analysis we are able to broaden the range of economically feasible co-ownership projects and make better use of scarce resources while providing valuable skills. 
 

Identification and Acquisition of Opportunity Sites: by working with prospective resident groups trained in initial site assessment, decision making, and technical assistance we will focus on sites that residents identify as priorities for the use of development funds.
 

Innovative Financing: A key part of NCLT's ground work has been the development of the Small Sites Acquisition Model which leverages local subsidy funds for small sites (Berkeley and the MTC’s NOAH fund) with conventional bank / CDFI financing, and finally the development of the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative with the Sustainable Economies Law Center and POCSHN which is structured to allow community members to directly invest in the development of resident-controlled affordable housing in their community.


Stewardship: Finally, once a project is developed and owned by residents the NCLT provides long-term stewardship, support and guarantees that the community investment in affordability will assist generations of future residents. POCSHN envisions creating a network of resources that fosters long term community support for the governance, maintenance, and sustainability of co-ownership projects.  The end product is permanently affordable resident-controlled ownership housing for existing and emerging resident groups. At the end of development cycle the land is retained by the CLT (Community Land Trust) and the CLT stewards the project long-term to ensure permanent affordability and viability of the property.

How to Get Involved:
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