Land is freedom. It’s potential. It’s home. It’s the foundation upon which we build our futures. Who decides how it’s used and who gets to live there matters.
True sovereignty cannot be foreclosed. And, as the climate crisis continues to develop, direct access to soil, water, and sun to sow then sustain communities will be essential to their agency.
Land ownership by or for Black American communities, whether as a place to live or to grow food, has been an explicit goal of the Civil Rights Movement since the 1950s and 60s. As Fannie Lou Hamer noted, “We must buy land immediately, or our people will die forgotten.”
This struggle is an intersectional one, but like so many others in America, the burden has been felt disproportionately by people of color, especially Black and Indigenous Americans who were almost completely dispossessed by the slave trade and the gradual westward push of settlers.
Many of history’s worst crimes — including America’s own worst hits — are deeply tied to forcing people to work land that they don’t own. Fundamentally, having persistent ownership of real assets means whatever product comes from that asset is yours, despite who’s labor developed it. The roots of capitalism grow from the relationship between land and labor. Those relationships are complex and deeply connected to location and community.
Today, there are dozens of organizations across the U.S. that are experimenting with different approaches to building and maintaining local wealth and independence not only today but for generations to come. Two of them show how this works in very different real estate markets: the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative (EB PREC) in Oakland, California, and the Historic District Development Corporation (HDDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. (They happen to be two organizations that my investment firm Candide Group has supported — and thus is why I am familiar with their stories.)
EBPREC: Keeping Land in Community Hands
In high-end markets like the Bay Area, it’s especially challenging to keep land in community hands as real estate is already at such a premium. Organizations like East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative (EB PREC) have made major progress — while bringing tangible, consistent benefits to investor-owners.
EB PREC does this by focusing on community engagement and investment. As recent exposes on the “We Buy Ugly Houses” company have reinforced, one of the biggest barriers to community stability and autonomy is the desperation that comes with personal or familiar hardship. Unscrupulous companies often exploit that struggle. EB PREC upends this model with collective ownership and responsibility. Community members can build equity and establish and maintain a voting relationship with their community.
“East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative supports and provides technical assistance to groups of community members who coalesce around the acquisition of a property or properties, including homes, multi-unit buildings, and commercial properties,” said Annie McShiras of EB PREC.
“That organized group then works with neighbors and other community members to crowd-finance the property by purchasing cooperative membership equity shares… Members earn a targeted 1.5% in annual dividends on their shares, providing a source of low-cost capital to the cooperative. EB PREC holds the title, permanently protecting the property from the speculative market, while delegating the governance of the individual properties to small democratic groups of residents, enabling residents to build not only equity but also self-governance skills and empowered community control.
“The current ecosystem of options for housing and land ownership is perpetuating deep social and racial injustices,” said McShiras. “We shift the dominant paradigm of land and housing commodification by building a movement around the Permanent Real Estate Cooperative (PREC), a new model that de-commodifies land and housing, builds collective wealth in and for communities of color, and re-weaves the right relationship to the land beneath our feet.”
Historic District Development Corporation: Protecting Dr. King’s Neighborhood
While Atlanta isn’t as infamous as the Bay Area for it’s cost of living, average rent in the city increased by over 65% in the 2010s, with home prices nearly doubling. By all accounts, that’s only intensified in the 2020s, with rent spiking as much 83% just from 2021 to 2022. This at the same time that Georgia, and Atlanta especially are growing and becoming more diverse. With growth, though, comes huge challenges: ensuring the people who have grown up in Atlanta can afford to stay being chief among them.
The Historic District Development Corporation is rebuilding communities in Atlanta, Georgia by integrating affordable housing and commercial spaces with places of historical provenance. For instance, in Dr. King’s neighborhood in Historic Auburn, they have broken ground on the Front Porch on Auburn, a 100,000 sq. foot mixed-used affordable housing development on historic Auburn Avenue, a historical nexus for Black Atlanta since the 1920s.
“Our passion lies in strengthening, revitalizing, and preserving the identity and history of our communities through equitable and inclusive development projects. We believe that land and property connect us to the people and history it represents,” CEO and President of HDDC, Chenee Joseph said. “ Our vision of land sovereignty for Black communities emphasizes the importance of preserving cultural heritage while ensuring fair and inclusive opportunities. A core example of that work is our Front Porch on Auburn project, a model for equitable and inclusive development that aims to preserve cultural integrity and maintain an equitable quality of life in Atlanta’s historic Sweet Auburn District and the surrounding community. We achieve our mission as a community development corporation through shared equity approaches, community land trusts, and land stewardship commitment.”
The struggle for land ownership by BIPOC communities has been ongoing for decades, as it represents an essential pillar of freedom, potential, and agency. With growing awareness of the climate crisis and the need for direct access to soil, water, and sun to sow and sustain communities, organizations like EB PREC and HDDC are challenging the dominant paradigm of land commodification. By building collective wealth in communities of color, they enable residents to build equity and autonomy. Through their different approaches, these organizations preserve cultural heritage while ensuring fair and inclusive opportunities.
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Morgan Simon is a founding partner of Candide Group. This material is intended for information purposes only, and does not constitute investment advice, a recommendation or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell any securities to any person in any jurisdiction. The opinions expressed are as of May 2023 and are subject to change without notice. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the reader. Investing involves risks.
HDDC and EB PREC are both Members of the Candide Group portfolio. You can view our past year of recommendations as a Registered Investment Advisor & accompanying disclosures here: h//buff.ly/3HwxNMO
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