CJJC is joining with Homes For All in calling on renters, low-income homeowners, people without homes, and everyone that believes the land in our communities should benefit the people that live there to take bold, creative, direct action on Tuesday, April 7th!

All around the country, we see “community development” happening that doesn’t actually benefit the people that live in our communities. Every day we experience the violent impacts of gentrification as we see our neighbors displaced, the grocery store on the corner turned into luxury lofts, and our communities and cultures disregarded. We’ve what happens when corporate and Wall Street landlords get government subsidies to buy up our communities for pennies on the dollar.

We aren’t the ones that created the housing crisis, but we know we have the solutions to get ourselves out of it. Now is the time to dream wildly & demand control over how our communities are shaped.

OUR DEMANDS

• 50% of public* land donated to community land trusts & other alternatives that ensure community control and permanent affordable housing. This includes:
  • Public Housing
  • Public Lots
  • Vacant Lots
  • Publicly Subsidized Development
• Community control over homes, the process & the funding for all public and vacant land development. Housing & land should be owned & controlled by those who live there.
• No land giveaways or tax breaks for luxury development,** and the prioritization of investment in communities of color and working class communities.
• Material redress for harm caused by the forced separation of people and land associated with slavery, colonialist expansion, theft of Indigenous land, segregation, anti-immigrant policies, and other legacies of white supremacy in the United States in order to create the resilient, healthy, and sustainable communities we all deserve. 
• Stop corporate investments and private equity from controlling the housing market through speculation.

* In these demands, we define “public” as all land that is or has received any amount of public subsidy.

** In these demands, we define “luxury development” as any development that does not benefit those who are most impacted by the housing crisis and whose process is not community controlled.

JUST LAND & HOUSING PRINCIPLES

Adapted from Communities Over Commodities: People Driven Alternatives to an Unjust Housing System

• Community Control: Land and housing should be owned and controlled through democratic structures and processes by those who live there while upholding all of the Just Land and Housing principles.
• Affordability: Land and housing must be truly affordable. After paying housing costs including utilities, people must still have enough to cover all other basic needs such that they can thrive now and throughout their life.
• Permanence: Land and people’s homes need to be protected from market forces causing displacement and from changes in government policy that jeopardize their community control of land and housing security over the long term.
• Inclusivity: Land and housing must be inclusive. Historically marginalized populations including across race, class and gender must be affirmatively outreached to, included as residents, and participate in decision-making related to the land, housing and community. Housing, by its location and design, must foster the inclusion of its residents.
• Health and Sustainability: Land and housing should foster healthy, sustainable communities. This includes an approach to maximize the wellbeing of those living in communities, ecological design and construction, climate resilience and clean, renewable energy and safe, affordable water systems.