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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Will Spisak, Senior Policy Strategist at New Economy Project
4:26:40
·
139 sec
Will Spisak testified on behalf of New Economy Project, advocating for increased funding for the citywide Community Land Trust (CLT) initiative. He requested an enhancement of funding from $1.5 million to $3 million for the fiscal year, as promised in Speaker Adam's commitment to the City for All funding package.
- Spisak highlighted the growth of CLTs in New York City over the past decade, from one functioning CLT to widespread interest across all council districts.
- He emphasized the potential of CLTs to provide deeply affordable homeownership, preserve rent-stabilized apartments, and convert vacant properties into community spaces and affordable housing.
- Spisak noted the high demand for CLT education and support across various neighborhoods in New York City, from Southeast Queens to South Brooklyn to South Bronx.
Will Spisak
4:26:40
Alright.
4:26:41
Good afternoon council members.
4:26:43
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
4:26:44
My name is Will Spiezak.
4:26:45
I'm a senior policy strategist at New Economy Project.
4:26:49
We are the, cofounders and coordinators of the New York City Community Land Initiative, which is a citywide coalition that's been on the forefront of expanding community land trusts as a vehicle to secure deeply and permanently affordable housing and equitable neighborhood development across the city.
4:27:06
I'm here to testify in regards to the citywide CLT initiative, which you've already heard a little bit about.
4:27:13
We're asking city council to enhance our funding from 1.5 to $3,000,000 for this fiscal year as was promised in speaker Adam's commitment in the city for all funding package last year.
4:27:27
So all we're asking for is to make sure the money ends up where it's supposed to, as it was already promised.
4:27:33
You know, a decade ago, before we started this COT initiative, when we went to council member after council member to talk about the importance of community land trust and community ownership, most, council members, most community members never heard of COTs.
4:27:48
We had one functioning community land trust in the city at the time, in Cooper Square COT.
4:27:53
Today, every community, every council member knows about CLTs.
4:27:58
They wanna see the Community Land Trust model expand into their neighborhood to bring deeply affordable homeownership, to preserve those rent stabilized apartments that are being neglected and nobody else wants to purchase, to convert those properties that are laying vacant and foul to active sites for community centers, commercial space, and deeply and permanently affordable housing.
4:28:23
So this is the opportunity for us to invest in that excitement, to invest in this movement, to help it grow to the next level.
4:28:29
You've heard from some of my colleagues that are organizing COTs and from you're gonna hear from a few more.
4:28:34
I happen to go out to communities to do education when new groups are interested in starting community land trusts.
4:28:41
There's so much energy and there's so much demand, and we hardly have the capacity to reach every neighborhood.
4:28:47
So from Southeast Queens to South Brooklyn to South Bronx, we're seeing this interest and we wanna make sure we can, help each of those communities start up their CLTs, and expand, across their neighborhoods.
4:28:58
Thank you.