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Housing

We envision a world where every person has a home, and housing is a right rather than a commodity.

The Sustainable Economies Law Center's Housing Program prioritizes working alongside working class communities and communities of color – those who historically and currently have the least housing security – to develop legal structures and policy mechanisms that remove housing from the speculative marketplace and give communities control over land and housing resources. In particular, we promote cooperative housing, community land trusts, and other cooperative mechanisms for creating truly affordable, community controlled, and ecologically sustainable housing.

All human beings need economically sustainable housing options. However, the speculative marketplace drives many of society’s decisions about land and housing, converting housing into a financial asset rather than a place to call home and the foundation of community. Decades of public policy incentivizing private homeownership has, in fact, contributed to the growing racial wealth gap, and targeted disinvestment has made predominantly poor and working class communities vulnerable to displacement and gentrification. Throughout the world, tenants’ and landless people’s movements are vocalizing the essential unfairness of the fact that so many people must struggle to secure a place to physically exist, much less make a livelihood, on the planet.

We are “rethinking home,” because we want to challenge and transform many of the predominant models for housing ourselves by creating more cooperative and just alternatives.

Want more info about our Center's Housing work? Contact Jay Cumberland at [email protected]. Sign up below to get the latest updates about our work to build a world where every person has a home.

 

Who's joining

Cerena Harrison Cerena Harrison
Tess Fields Tess Fields
Geri Morisky Geri Morisky
Rebecca Rodriguez Rebecca Rodriguez
Buck Bagot Buck Bagot
nell scott nell scott
April Magill April Magill
Eneshal Miller Eneshal Miller
Julie Gilgoff Julie Gilgoff
Donna Debonis Donna Debonis
Anne Snick Anne Snick
Jonathan Campbell Jonathan Campbell
Ellis Schoichet Ellis Schoichet
Maureen DeVoe Maureen DeVoe
Julia Paulsen Julia Paulsen
Red Branch Red Branch
Alexis Foxworth Alexis Foxworth
Brant Hove Brant Hove
Saul Ramos Saul Ramos
jasmine palmer jasmine palmer
Wendy Wonnell Wendy Wonnell
Brisa Aviles Brisa Aviles
Jayda Garlipp Jayda Garlipp
Danielle Ancin Danielle Ancin
Deborah Williams Deborah Williams
Kevin O’connor Kevin O’connor
Peter Nicholson Peter Nicholson
Candi Ausman Candi Ausman
Maria Baltazar Maria Baltazar
Beth Hodess Beth Hodess


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Programs

  • Resilient Communities
    Legal Cafe
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  • Worker Self-Directed Nonprofits
  • Food & Farming
  • Housing
  • Radical Real Estate
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  • Energy Democracy
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    New Economy
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Events

Wednesday, September 27

12:00 PM | Online Legal Cafe

Thursday, October 05

12:00 PM | Online Legal Cafe

Thursday, October 12

12:00 PM | Online Legal Cafe

Wednesday, October 18

12:00 PM | In-Person Legal Cafe with EBCLC

Thursday, November 02

12:00 PM | Online Legal Cafe

In the Media

  • New York Times
  • Shareable
  • Utne Reader
  • Fast Company
In the News

Thanks to our Partners and Collaborators:

  • Repaired Nations
  • AmbitioUS
  • Prospera
  • Climate Justice Alliance
  • Lift Economy
  • US Federation of Worker Cooperatives
  • East Bay Community Law Center
  • New Economy Coalition
  • Democracy At Work Institute
  • Right to the City Alliance
  • NOBAWC
  • EB PREC
  • WORC
  • People Power Solar Cooperative
  • CA Farmer Justice Collaborative
  • Project Equity
  • Harmonize
  • Agroecology Commons
  • MINNOW
  • The Cultural Conservancy
  • The Center for Ethical Land Transition

Feel free to share, use, and/or build upon any of these cartoons and these legal resources, which are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0), except where otherwise noted. 
CHECK OUT OUR PRIVACY POLICY here.


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The Law Center is registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. 
1428 Franklin Street, Oakland CA 94612

 

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