Aug 29 2015
We’ve just added the most complete bibliography of books, articles, films, and reports ever compiled about community land trusts. And editor-in-chief John Emmeus Davis will keep it updated at least twice a year as new materials are published. GO TO THE CLT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Jun 1 2015
JOHN EMMEUS DAVIS: Land is typically the least creative aspect of community development, conceptually and practically. A departure from this norm is the community land trust (CLT), an innovative model of community-led development that rearranges relations of property and power in the place of residence. The foundation for a CLT, as well as for other […]
Apr 27 2014
JOHN EMMEUS DAVIS: Last year, I was contacted by a small publisher in Montreal, Les Éditions Écosociété, asking for my assistance in preparing a collection of essays about community land trusts for French-speaking audiences in Quebec, Belgium, and France. The translation of these previously published essays, some written by me and some by others, was recently completed. The book is now in production, with a scheduled distribution date of October 2014.
Apr 7 2014
BY JOHN EMMEUS DAVIS: “History is bunk,” declared Henry Ford to a newspaper reporter in 1916. “The only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today.” We are a people who would rather look forward than backward. Our field is no exception. Making things better here and now is what matters the most, a case of do or die. Who has time to wonder how the story began?
Jan 29 2014
BY JOHN EMMEUS DAVIS: Doing homeownership with a ground lease is “just too hard,” goes the tiresome refrain. It is “so much easier” using a deed covenant to ensure the lasting affordability of resale-restricted, owner-occupied homes that private donations, public subsidies, or public powers have made possible. So many voices raised in agreement that the same objectives can be achieved just as effectively—and much more easily—through deed covenants. But is that actually true?
Jul 23 2013
BY JOHN DAVIS: One of many effects of the Great Recession has been a shift in public policy and nonprofit programming from a focus on helping lower-income families “move to opportunity” to a focus on helping renters and homeowners to keep what they’ve already got. But there is nothing funny about families being stuck in housing that doesn’t meet their needs, either because it provides too little or demands too much.
May 6 2013
BY JOHN DAVIS: As the housing market has begun its slow recovery, major banks have been steadily withdrawing support and withholding capital from shared equity homeownership. It’s as if the entire sector had to be taught a lesson in humility after out-performing the bankers’ favored form of tenure.
Aug 27 2012
BY JOHN DAVIS: For many people, in many places, shared equity homeownership is simply a sweeter deal and safer investment than buying a home on the open market. Yet few of us who work with community land trusts (CLTs), limited equity cooperatives (LECs), or inclusionary housing programs mandating long-term affordability are accustomed to trumpeting the superiority of the housing we provide.
Roots&Branches is now part of the Center for Community Land Trust Innovation: www.cltweb.org. We’re migrating much of the content from Roots&Branches to this new website — and as such, Roots&Branches will go into archival mode.
CONTACT: Please feel free to email Greg Rosenberg with any questions you have at greg@gregrosenberg.com.
Feb 5 2017
Arc of Justice Film
Arc of Justice traces the remarkable journey of New Communities, Inc. (NCI) in southwest Georgia, a story of racial justice, community organizing, and perseverance in the face of enormous obstacles. CHECK OUT THE FILM’S WEBSITE BACKGROUND: NCI was created in 1969 in Albany, Georgia by leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, including Congressman John […]
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