We are thrilled to announce we launched the Sunset Park Organizing Building Project last night at the Sunset Park Public Library. Representatives from Neighbors Helping Neighbors, United Families of Sunset Park, Center for Family Life, United Community Consulting Worker-Cooperative, and the Community Board 7 joined the presentation and engaged in a productive discussion about the opportunities of challenges of developing shared ownership housing models in Sunset Park.
This project was created based on the interest that different local entities have shown over the last five years to expand housing cooperative models in Sunset Park, in a context of increasing rents and decreasing housing affordability. It also responds to AM Marcela Mitaynes’ sponsorship of the Tenant Opportunity of Purchase Act (TOPA) bill, which along other bills part of the Community Land Act (CLA) law package, could give housing cooperatives, community land trusts, and other nonprofit organizations the tools to develop and preserve community controlled and permanent affordable housing.
Honoring the cooperative legacy of Sunset Park, this project facilitates organizing efforts to build knowledge and power and, in turn, establish a neighborhood coalition for shared ownership housing development and rehabilitation opportunities. Through different pedagogical and organizing tools, the project seeks to spark dialogue and bring together neighbors, tenant associations, tenant organizers, emergent and seasoned leaders, civic and nonprofit organizations, and elected officials.
At the center of this project is the organizer building toolkit, developed to be used by neighbors, organizers tenant associations, civic groups, and nonprofit organizations committed to housing justice and interested in building knowledge and power leading to community control. It serves as a resource for learning about and organizing for the development of shared ownership housing development models, including mutual housing associations, housing cooperatives and community land trusts. With an overarching organizing framework and a variety of downloadable tools, this toolkit can be used for organizing efforts taking place through hallway conversations, building meetings, community workshops, and neighborhood coalitions. It equip users with strategies for door-to-door outreach, tenant association formation, mapping potential properties for shared ownership, policy advocacy, and community land trust formation.
This project was initiated and developed by MS Design and Urban Ecologies students Delaney Connor, Shivani Dave, Arooj Fatima, Zola Haber, Molly Meng, Antonia Simon, Ruth Wondemu, in collaboration with Gant Roberson, student from the MA in Historical Studies.
For more information about this project and to access the downloadable toolkit components, click here.
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