Own the Block | Episode 4 | Transform Finance: Julia Parker, Program Manager
A capital stack tells you whose money is in the deal. We want you to ask who made the deal possible in the first place. You’ll hear about neighbors who knocked on doors, organizers who kept people at the table through disagreements, and residents who gave up evenings to figure out which parcels they wanted to own together. Then ask who gets to decide what happens to the property once the money comes in.
In this episode of Own the Block, I talk with Michael Partis, executive director of Red Hook Initiative, Alexander “Brave Journey” Sterling, board chair and CEO of Turtle Island Community Capital, and Nneka Onwuzurike, founder and executive director of The Community WEB. We get into who does the work that makes community ownership possible, who pays for it, and what it would take for residents to exercise real power over the places they call home.
Community control starts well before there’s a deal
Every neighborhood has those people you call when you want to bring people together. They know who’s missing from the room and why some neighbors have good reason to be skeptical of another meeting. Their influence comes from relationships built over years. They’re the people doing the hardest work of building a democratic process - and often community selected, not elected.
If residents are going to govern a building together through a community-owned real estate (CORE) project, they need time and resources to make decisions that carry weight. Who gets to use the space? What happens when keeping rents affordable puts pressure on the budget? Who can approve a sale? Those questions belong on the table while residents can still shape the terms.
The people with the least capital are already subsidizing the deal
A project budget makes room for appraisals, lawyers, and architects. The hours it takes to bring residents together, work through conflict, and build a governance process often get buried in an organization’s operating budget. Some of that work happens off the clock. Some of that work happens off the clock, paid for in evenings, missed shifts, or childcare and translation services.
Meanwhile, funders ask for proof of community buy-in before they’ll commit real money. In practice, that means the people with the least access to capital carry some of the earliest risk. Their work makes a project possible, and the people who come in later with big money can still end up with the strongest say over what happens to the property. That’s an arrangement we can and must change.
At Transform Finance we are calling for flexible predevelopment grants that pay for organizing, ownership design, legal support, and feasibility before a group has site control, a finished pro forma, or a lender commitment. That’s when residents can still decide which property to pursue and negotiate for those decisions to carry weight in the ownership documents. Funders can support that process and write grant agreements that leave decisions about property use and community priorities in residents’ hands.
Enterprise capital gives communities room to exercise power
One idea we discuss is enterprise capital. It’s long-term, unrestricted funding that gives a community organization the kind of room to build that equity gives a business. It can pay for staff, organizing, and the systems that make democratic governance possible. It also lets an organization carry that work forward across deals, including when a particular property falls through.
Imagine residents spend months exploring a building and learn that the financing would require rents their neighbors couldn’t afford. They should be able to walk away and keep organizing. If the grant depends on closing on that property, the organization can lose its funding for honoring the very priorities residents came together to defend. A grant that supports a pivot gives people room to act on what they’ve learned.
For funders, the ask is clear. Make unrestricted commitments for five years or more. Stay with organizations when residents decide the original plan no longer serves them. Pay for organizing, stewardship, and governance while communities still have choices about what to pursue.
Pay for stewardship after closing, too
Once a community owns the property, somebody still has to run meetings, bring new residents into the governance process, manage the building, and plan for the day the roof needs replacing. In this episode, we call for multi-year operating and stewardship support and, where it makes sense, grants that help build reserves for major repairs. If affordable rents have to cover debt service, building operations, and every cost of democratic governance, the pressure lands right back on residents.
If we’re serious about economic democracy, residents need the power to set the terms, change the plan, and walk away from a deal that would undermine what they’ve worked to build. That power needs a budget before closing and a source of funding for as long as the community is expected to steward the property.
🎙️ Listen to “The Work Before the Deal,” Episode 4 of Own the Block, a podcast from Transform Finance.
Learn more about the guests’ work. Red Hook Initiative · Turtle Island Community Capital · The Community WEB
Own the Block is a podcast from Transform Finance exploring what it takes to finance, build, and sustain community-owned real estate.
