Own the Block | Episode 2 | Transform Finance: Julia Parker, Program Manager
Who gets to own the neighborhood?
It sounds like a simple question. But in communities that have spent generations fighting disinvestment, displacement, and the steady transfer of wealth out of their neighborhoods, the answer is anything but simple.
For decades, we've been told that investment is the answer. Attract developers. Bring in capital. Revitalize the corridor. Raise property values.
But investment for whom? Development on whose terms? And who gets to stay when the neighborhood becomes valuable again?
In Episode 2 of Own the Block, I sit down with two leaders who are challenging the rules of real estate ownership: Adriana Abizadeh-Barbour, Executive Director of the Kensington Corridor Trust in Philadelphia, and Noni Session, Executive Director of the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative (EB PREC) in Oakland.
Their models are different, but their work begins with a shared conviction: Communities shouldn't have to surrender control of their neighborhoods to secure their futures.
Through Kensington Corridor Trust's neighborhood trust model and EB PREC's cooperative approach, Adriana and Noni demonstrate that community-owned real estate isn't simply about acquiring buildings. It's about shifting who holds power, who makes decisions, and who benefits from the wealth a neighborhood creates.
And that work is neither quick nor free.
One of the most compelling parts of our conversation is the labor behind community ownership. Kensington Corridor Trust compensates residents for their participation, recognizing that community expertise has real economic value. Noni reflects on the years of unpaid labor that helped establish EB PREC and the privilege that made such work possible.
We cannot build an equitable economy on the backs of people we expect to organize for free.
We also confront a tension familiar to anyone working in community development: moving at the speed of trust while displacement moves at the speed of capital. But rushing community ownership without meaningful participation risks reproducing the very inequities we're trying to dismantle.
This is precisely why Transform Finance launched Own the Block. Financing community-owned real estate requires more than new financial products. It demands that we rethink whose knowledge matters, whose labor gets compensated, and who ultimately controls the assets.
Because ownership without power isn't transformation.
The neighborhood is not just an investment opportunity. It's somebody's home, history, culture, and future.
And the people who built it deserve more than a seat at the table. They deserve the power to decide what happens next.
🎙️ Listen to Episode 2: Who Gets to Own the Neighborhood?
Own the Block is a podcast from Transform Finance exploring what it takes to finance, build, and sustain community-owned real estate.
