Chinatown Community Land Trust

Row house preservation Chinatown clt has a particular focus on preserving permanently affordable homes by removing some of the neighborhood's small properties from the speculative market. These brick row houses have historically housed some of Chinatown's most vulnerable residents, yet many properties were flipped and converted to short-term rental properties over the past decade. Chinatown clt seeks to preserve permanently affordable homes and small business spaces, and to maintain core row house streets as anchors of the working class Community for generations to come. Row house investments continues to hold 99-year ground leases for permanent affordability. It has completed sales of seven affordable home ownership units to first time homebuyers and recently stabilized tenants in a four-unit row house.

Environmental justice & Chinatown microgrid Chinatown clt partners with the green justice coalition and resilient urban neighborhoods to develop a community-controlled energy microgrid to support resilience, clean energy, economic and environmental justice for Chinatown. The microgrid will use battery storage, solar panels, smart inverters, and other assets to reduce carbon emissions and energy costs, while increasing resilience and Community power. Chinatown clt and the chinese progressive association established Chinatown power, Inc. as a public benefit corporation to lead the Community microgrid. It is currently beginning implementation of a microgrid pilot at mass pike towers, a 200-unit affordable housing development, and in planning and design for seven other multifamily buildings. In addition to the microgrid project, Chinatown clt plays an important role in promoting environmental justice through popular education, organizing, advocacy, planning, and implementation. This includes work to expand and improve open space and green infrastructure and to mitigate the effects of cumulative pollution impacts, extreme heat, and flooding.

Community building and collective governance clt works with residents, small business owners, and other stakeholders to strengthen the Community fabric and its sense of Community. An important goal is to reclaim the practice of the Community commons, collectively governing and protecting public Land, shared spaces, and resources that are important for Community life, not their monetary value. Recent activities include organizing residents around a variety of street improvements, for Community governance of reggie wong park, and developing a shared Community Land Trust loan fund with boston area partners. Chinatown clt is part of a growing movement for collective control and stewardship of Land to stabilize our communities and plays an active role in the greater boston clt network, the homes for all campaign, and other movement building networks. Focuses include peer learning, shared resources, and promotion of policies and practices that limit Land speculation, increase Community control, and stabilize neighborhoods.

Historic and cultural preservation Chinatown clt works to preserve and grow Chinatown as a historic and cultural district that preserves and safeguards the living pulse of boston's immigrant history; it centers on the principle that Chinatown can only be preserved if its working class chinese residents and small businesses remain. Work includes an immigrant history trail to activate nearly two centuries of historic archives, the Chinatown worker statues project, place-keeping through public art and social tourism, and exploration of both historic conservation district and cultural district status. Planning for a healthy Community Chinatown clt led a participatory planning process to produce Chinatown master plan 2020 and co-facilitates the ongoing Chinatown master plan committee in order to guide implementation steps to achieve the Community's vision. Ongoing focuses include stewardship of public Land, promotion of a healthy environment, economic stability, and shared public spaces. Chinatown clt is currently partnering with other organizations on a Chinatown cultural plan and working with the city of boston on zoning guidelines that support the Community's vision.