Bringing Land and Housing into Community Hands is a community resource made in collaboration with CUP (Center for Urban Pedagogy; a nonprofit based in Brooklyn that uses the power of art and design to increase meaningful civic engagement in partnership with marginalized communities) and NYCCLI (New York City Community Land Initiative; a citywide alliance working to advance community land trusts) to address root causes of homelessness and displacement, New Economy Project, co-founder of NYCCLI, and member organization, South Bronx Unite.
Developed over a span of nine months, in close collaboration with each other and members of Community Land Trusts across NYC, I worked on the design and illustration for this handout which folds out into a poster.
The resource explains what a CLT is, their history, and examples of different kinds of CLTs across the country.
It also covers how a CLT works, the different ways readers can participate in a CLT, and six case studies of successful CLTs in New York City.
The resource explains what a CLT is, their history, and examples of different kinds of CLTs across the country.
It also covers how a CLT works, the different ways readers can participate in a CLT, and six case studies of successful CLTs in New York City.
The guide begins by introducing what a CLT is, their history, and examples of CLTs organized across the country.
Folding out to the right, it expands on how a CLT works and different ways that readers can participate in one.
It then opens up to a poster spotlighting six NYC CLTs: East Harlem El Barrio CLT, Mott Haven-Port Morris Community Land Stewards, Western Queens CLT, East New York CLT, the BLAC Land Trust, and ReAL Edgemere CLT.
This resource was developed with feedback on various stages of the design and copy from community members and residents of CLT's in New York City.
Collage credits: Sarah Auches and CUP
To create a more accessible entry point into CLTs, we moved away from the more technical diagrams often used to describe how they work. Community members gravitated towards illustrations of people in action and wanted to see more illustrations of the places they imagine for their communities.
Collage credits: Sarah Auches and CUP
We incorporated case studies of six New York City CLTs. Community members helped us figure out what content to prioritize for these case studies. They wanted to emphasize what the community was originally organizing for when the CLT formed, and what the CLT is working on now.
They also helped define the visual look of each case study, preferring illustrations of people participating in CLT activities over illustrations of the buildings they've acquired.
They also helped define the visual look of each case study, preferring illustrations of people participating in CLT activities over illustrations of the buildings they've acquired.
Adapted illustration and copy for social media
This project was created in collaboration with the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), Ishita Jain, NYCCLI and South Bronx Unite as part of CUP’s Making Policy Public program. Learn more the process here.
