Change Capital Fund’s New Grantees Signal Increased Momentum for Community Ownership

Press Release:

For more information, please contact:
Wendy Fleischer, CCF Donor Representative:  wendy@wendyfleischer.com; 347-683-0538

Change Capital Fund, a 20-member collaborative of banks, foundations and intermediaries, recently selected a new round of grantees which are advancing projects to repurpose un- or under-used public land or buildings as community assets. The eight projects, led by communities of color, will create new, permanently and deeply affordable rental housing or home-ownership opportunities, open spaces, community facilities, cooperatively-owned food businesses and/or food hubs. The projects will be controlled by community members.

These developing projects are manifesting the vision of a growing movement for community ownership which has been gathering momentum in New York City and across the country. The movement is animated by the belief that ownership is a source of power and a way to reshape communities that have been severely impacted by racism, under-investment and, more recently, gentrification.

Change Capital Fund will strengthen the community organizations leading these efforts through grants, capacity building and funds for project-specific technical assistance consultants. Contributing institutions include:  Altman Foundation, BankUnited, Capital One, Deutsche Bank, Enterprise Communities, Goldman Sachs, HSBC Bank USA, JPMorgan Chase, LISC, M & T Bank, MUFG, New York Foundation, The New York Community Trust, Principal Foundation, Santander Bank, Scherman Foundation, Trinity Wall Street, United Way of NYC and Wells Fargo Bank.

Lisa Talma, Deutsche Bank believes, “CCF grants will provide critical resources at this time when, after years of organizing, these organizations are successfully gaining control of public land and transforming it for public purpose in line with community needs.”

Over the next four years, Change Capital Fund members will distribute approximately $8 million to eight grantees selected through a request for proposals process. Grantees will receive $150,000 per year for four years. They also will have access to a technical assistance fund to support specific project costs and will benefit from peer learning during the four-year grant cycle.

Grantee, David Shuffler, Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice says, “YMPJ is poised to transform the underside of the Bruckner Expressway into a vibrant community hub while addressing the longstanding community need for food access, economic development, and intergenerational programming. This four-year grant will go a long way to making that happen.”

Rickke Mananzala, New York Foundation, says, ““the next four years will be pivotal as these groups see the fruits of their organizing for racial and economic justice lead to vital assets owned by and for community members.”

Yajaira Lopez, Tri-State Region President, Santander Bank says: “Santander is thrilled to be part of this public/private partnership to support communities in shaping their future.”

Change Capital Fund’s grantees are:

  • East Harlem/El Barrio CLT is completing rehabilitation of distressed city-owned properties as tenant-run, permanently affordable housing with land to be owned by the community land trust.
  • The East New York CLT has taken stock of every vacant parcel in East New York, Brooklyn and has identified several potential development sites for permanently affordable housing. They also seek to establish a preservation pilot program to model alternatives for tax-distressed homeowners to help them avert foreclosure.
  • Interboro Community Land Trust, a collaboration between the Center for New York City Neighborhoods, Habitat for Humanity New York City and Westchester County, the Mutual Housing Association of New York, and the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board is a citywide CLT. With over 400 apartments in their pipeline, they will dramatically increase the stock of permanently affordable homeownership and wealth-building opportunities available to low- and moderate-income and BIPOC households.
  • Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition is advancing three affordable housing projects on land to be put into the Bronx Community Land Trust.
  • ReAL Edgemere CLT is a new organization that was awarded 62 vacant lots to create affordable, two-family homes, open space and commercial space on the Rockaway Peninsula, an area that had been devastated by Hurricane Sandy.
  • RiseBoro Community Partnership and the Central Brooklyn Movement Center are collaborating to open the Central Brooklyn Food Coop as a Black-led, consumer- owned food store which will do business with several Black-owned food-based worker coops to foster an integrated, neighborhood-centered local food economy.
  • South Bronx Unite seeks to renovate and repurpose the city-owned and abandoned Lincoln Recovery Center as a new H.ealth, E.ducation, and Arts hub for neighborhood connection and activities, a culinary arts kitchen, performance and co-working space as well as affordable space for local nonprofit organizations.
  • Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice (YMPJ) will develop empty space under the Bruckner Expressway, Bronx as the Soundview Economic Hub to create a vibrant community space hosting food and cultural programming, clean soil distribution, employment, job training opportunities through incubator space, and intergenerational programs and activities for residents.

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