thistory — the What & Why of our coming together around this…¶

The Collective of Collectives —¶

“The Collective of Collectives is formed for the purpose of
strengthening our member collectives and the community at large
through sharing resources, skills, and knowledge, and to promote
cooperation, democracy, and social justice.”

Many of the member collectives live in rental houses… this is very
unstable. Many of us have been unwillingly relocated multiple times
and/or fear this in our future.

Creating & supporting alternative, long-term, sustainable
alternatives to renting is a great way to strengthen our member
collectives… one of our stated purposes. To this end we
co-sponsored an event planned by Evergreen Land Trust and Homestead
Community Land Trust to share information with the community about
what land trusts are and how they can create more affordability in
housing (of particular interest for The CofC is how land trusts can
work with collectively owned or self governed living situations).

From this first meeting, a group of folks are continuing to meet to
explore this option more

The first Land Trust Informational Brunch —¶

April 22 – Sunset House

The very first “Land Trust Info Session Brunch” was held on Sunday
April 22, hosted by Sunset House and co-sponsored by Evergreen Land
Trust, Homestead Community Land Trust and the Collective of
Collectives. Somewhere around 30 people came (by my memory, not
always accurate)…

Sheldon Cooper from Homestead CLT and Sylvia Hales from Evergreen
Land Trust provided fundamental information on the history and
current status of community land trusts as a means to create long
term housing affordability. Great reference materials were
available and distributed (and will continue to be)

Homestead and Evergreen are currently the two Land Trust
organizations in Seattle:

• Homestead Community Land Trust provides an alternative approach to
  home ownership for low income first time home buyers, creating long
  term affordable housing for the community – HCLT Advantage program
  offers funds towards the purchase price, essentially buying the land
  under a home which is leased back to the homeowner at minimal cost
  in exchange for a resale agreement to maintain long-term
  affordability, selling the home for a specified percentage of the
  increased value (www.homesteadclt.org/)
• The Evergreen Land Trust was established to “encourage the
  development of cooperative communities and sustainable land use
  practices through the preservation of land and housing” and now
  holds 6 residential communities – 3 urban and 3 rural farmlands.
  “The communities of Evergreen Land Trust are self-governing,
  cooperative stewardship associations. Each community is unique, but
  all of them operate by consensus decision-making of the residents,
  and all share a common commitment to the principles of ELT. The
  communities range in size from six members up to 15 members.”
  ELT (www.evergreenlandtrust.org/)

ELT is currently engaged in discussions around the potential for
growth of the Trust to include additional communities in the future.

Many questions were generated at this first gathering and a follow
up brunch was scheduled…

The second Land Trust Informational Brunch —¶

May 12 – Wedgewood Co-op

Folks came from Pragtree Farm (Oak & Rosalie), Sunset House
(Tamara), Emma Goldman Finishing School (Marc & Sheldon), Haphazard
House (Stephanie), NU House (Claudia) & Wedgwood (Karla, Eden, Noam
& Angel)

Initial brainstorming generated a number of thoughts and ideas for
purchasing possibilities, organizational structures and financing;
raised questions about our larger overall purpose; and raised
questions that we need more information gathered on

Purpose —
it will be important to clarify our intent/s and purpose/s to guide
the direction of our action/s. Do we want to:

• stabilize our own current living situation?
• create long term affordability in housing?
• create or identify purchasing options for collective ownership?
• create or identify alternative funding sources for collective
  ownership?
• create the potential for individual equity building?
• build community equity (to support a larger number of people in
  long-term affordable home)?

Ownership Structures —

• owned by individuals together: financing from a bank is difficult
• owned by an entity: what kind of entity — Co-Op? Limited
  Liability Corporation? “real estate/property management corporation”
  (can current models be be adapted to radical collective,
  self-managing alternatives)?
• shared ownership with a Land Trust: how would a land trust work
  with any of these ownership structures?

Financing Structures —

• borrow from a bank as individuals or an entity
• create a fund (like a “key club” that everyone in the community
  contributes to, providing ‘seed money’ for others, ie for
  down-payments and closing costs)
• create a small independent credit union for no- or low-interest loans
• apply for grant funds – study the long term benefits of collective
  living models (health, economics, etc)

Questions —
ooooodles of legal & logistical questions!! a few…

• how are other collective/cooperative communities owned? how did
  they initially purchase (if purchased)
• how are property management corporations defined and could that
  definition fit what we’re trying to do?
• how are limited liability corporations defined and could that
  definition fit what we’re trying to do?
• (what are we trying to do?)
• what are “shared use agreements” and how would they apply in
  different scenarios?
• what are advantages & disadvantages of various models?
• what funding sources (‘free’ money like grants) might be available?
• what is the legal structure/function of credit unions? would that
  be useful for our purpose and what would it take to start one?

some of us agreed to try to find some answers for some of the
questions before we meet again…