Truly Mixed-Income Communities

Our communities, neighborhoods, and cities do best when they have a vibrant diversity of people from all walks of life. However, how to create housing for these different groups, within the same geographic area, is a real challenge. There are fundamental forces that drive the apportionment of real estate in America. Those forces have side effects, and one of those side effects is the division of our communities along lines of income, race, and poverty.

However, creating areas of division is not how you create an inclusive and functioning community. No community that is populated by a majority of people in poverty or a majority of affluent people is going to be strong, resilient, and mighty. The concentration of poverty comes with ills that are well known and document. However, the concentration of affluence breeds its own discontent and creates a community with a hollow core.

This hollow core happens because the people that make communities tick cannot find a place in these communities of affluence. These people are your police officers, teachers, fireman, postal workers, entrepreneurs, service professionals, and more. They need a place to call home and they aspire to homeownership and permanence.

How to address this “inner core” problem is tricky, but over the next seven blog postings we will explore the power, pros, and cons of Community Land Trusts and how they can be a tool for create resilient, diverse, and mighty communities.