My research is for a report about alternative land and housing models, to be used as an educational and informational tool to all the aspiring CLT/LEC/Tenant Union/Socialist Cooperative-starters out there. My specific role is to outline these models and provide case studies that discuss the practical and more logistical aspects of their establishment, management and maintenance. To do this, I am using both primary and secondary data; for primary data, I am conducting a plethora of interviews and talking to people in different organisations and alliances, as secondary data, I am combing through literature and website information.
The literature I am meticulously scouring through is proving to be invaluable in developing a thorough and coherent write-up. I am going through Right to the City’s previous reports (all can be found here: http://righttothecity.org/reports/), focusing particularly on two landmark reports: Rise of the Renter Nation and Rise of the Corporate Landlord. I am also going through the treasure trove of reports published by a sister organisation, Causa Justa::Just Cause (https://cjjc.org/publication_type/reports/), of which Development without Displacement is serving a foundational text. I am also referring heavily to an embargoed (and therefore publicly inaccessible) report that Right to the City worked on earlier this year, which has a lot of valuable member commentary on it. These set of reports were all written in the past decade, most of which have been written in the past 5 years – so all pretty accurate and relevant to today’s land and housing situation (and crisis). A lot of them have historical information that discuss the impact of the history of this country’s economics and politics on the current land and budgeting system, which is incredibly important in making informed analyses of different housing models.
On the academic front, Tom Angotti’s “Community Land Trusts and Low-Income Multifamily Rental Housing: The Case of Cooper Square, New York City” and John Emmeus Davis’s “Common Ground: Community-Owned Land as a Platform for Equitable and Sustainable Development” are my main references for thinking about the structure and evaluation of models like CLTs and LECs. They were both written in the past year, so they are my top references for evaluating the current housing system – nicely complementing the reports I am referring to with more research-based and academically oriented information. I was also directed to using a Habitat for Humanity 2017 Shelter Report through Davis’ article, which he e-mailed to me along with the shelter report, that claims that “Among the many affiliates of Habitat for Humanity, some three dozen have partnered with CLTs, building Habitat homes on leased land, or have created ground leasing programs of their own.” This shelter report is not directly relevant to my research, but provides a good path for thinking about how different groups can support the efforts of alternative land and housing models.
It should come as no surprise that Peter Marcuse’s new book In Defense of Housing is guiding me in my thinking about alternative and public housing. I am (obviously) referring to David Harvey’s Rebel Cities for theory about right to the city and its application beyond simply academic or sociological speculation. Both these texts are more for background rather than direct use, but the theory they provide articulate a politics that align exactly with this report and are thus key texts for me. Although I am using quite a few academic texts (although nearly not enough by academic research standards), I’ve noticed that there isn’t a plethora concrete or direct academic literature on alternative land and housing models (which, I suppose, is why the report we are writing is so important!).
BIbliography:
- “Affordable for Good: Building Inclusive Communities through Homes That Last.” (2017): n. pag. Habitat for Humanity. Web. 9 July 2017.
- Angotti, Tom, and Cecilia Jagu. “Community Land Trusts and Low-Income Multifamily Rental Housing: The Case of Cooper Square, New York City.” Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 01 July 2007. Web. 09 July 2017.
- Davis, John Emmeus. “Common Ground: Community-Owned Land as a Platform for Equitable and Sustainable Development.” University of San Francisco Law Review(2017): n. pag. Lexis Nexis. Web. 9 July 2017.
- Harvey, David. Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution. London: Verso, 2013. Print.
- Marcuse, Peter, and David Madden. In Defense of Housing: The Politics of Crisis. London: Verso, 2016. Print.
You have built up quite a bibliography, although I think you are absolutely right about the paucity of academic literature on alternative housing and land models. Why do you think that is? Or do you think it’s true only of English-language literature? This is not to say you have not sorted through the literature available in other languages, but rather that often the resources upon which we rely create an echo chamber that excludes different discourses — and different epistemologies. For example, Marcuse, Harvey, and lately Angotti are like a triumverate of voices on these issues and are all in New York. I wonder what we are not hearing?