By Keith Schneider, The New York Times

Excerpt:

The cooperative strategy enables neighborhood groups to finance unconventional construction or renovation projects that banks and institutional lenders, which prefer strong cash-flow operations, won’t touch.

“It’s part of a robust movement for community control and affordable real estate, rather than enabling high-priced development at the whims of the market,” said Mohit Mookim, a lawyer at the Sustainable Economies Law Center, a nonprofit group in Oakland that helped develop the strategy.

Read full article here.

(Originally published May 13, 2024)