Understanding the Factors Affecting Washington DC's Community Land Trust Start-Up as a Potential Partial Remedy for Affordable Housing and Upward Mobility

Abstract

Background: The 2018 Menino Survey of Mayors revealed a bipartisan consensus that housing is a significant component of a city's infrastructure, and expensive housing rates are a substantial roadblock to city residents' social mobility. Housing affordability issues affect the City's economic growth in its ability to recruit and retain local employees. Although Washington DC is not a state, a compounding factor, it is facing a significant housing crisis as community redevelopment exacerbates poverty levels and displacement. The Social Equity theory emphasizes that administrators play a role in acknowledging that social and economic housing conditions impact citizens differently; citizens are not the same. Therefore, leveling the playing field involves fostering a commitment to provide resources, equal access, and targeted interventions, to correct wrongs and reduce risk factors for historically underserved groups. DC partnered with Building Bridges Across the River (BBAR) to repurpose the 11th Street Bridge into DC's first elevated pedestrian-only Park. This Park project will host community activities and connect wealthier gentrified Ward 6 Navy Yard/Capitol Hill to underinvested Ward 8 Anacostia neighborhoods. To remedy potential residential displacement, BBAR efforts launched Douglass Community Land Trust (DCLT) in DCs Ward 8 to focus on economic, social, and cultural inclusivity.

Methods: This study looked at Community Land Trust (CLT) as a potential partial solution to poverty, upward mobility, and displacement and identified the possible extent of economic and civic mobility amongst CLT participants. Case Studies, relevant literature research, public documents/reports, and interviews from DCLT stakeholders were used to discover the factors contributing to DCLT start-up ability to create social/spatial equity via Policy Interpretation, Community Land Control, Preliminary Resident Engagement/ Leadership Fostering, DCLT Structure/Capacity, and Collaboration Dynamics. An extensive qualitative/descriptive quantitative case study analysis of DCLT start-up phase was conducted.

Findings: The factors that affected DCLT start-up were: Robust and cohesive board, The public's lack of CLT knowledge, CLT Skepticism, Lack of legislation or substantive partnership with the City, and DC's expensive and limited land/housing stock.