A well-appointed workshop complete with shelves, worktables, cordless power tools, and a Makita quiet series air compresser that was rescued from a dumpster and repaired.

We are housed and unhoused people seeking to build housing and own it collectively to end displacement and ensure stability.

Minneapolis’s current approach to homelessness is an abusive system of shelters, costly and traumatic evictions of encampments, piecemeal resources and long waiting lists for public housing.​

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The land trust is a housing first approach. This means that potential residents would not be required to be sober, have a job, or meet other requirements that would be a barrier to getting housing.

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A community land trust allows us to own land as a collective of local organizers, create an autonomous and sustainable hub for community resources to grow, and build in a model for resident-led governance and ultimately, land back to the original stewards of the land. 

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Subscribe to our google calendar for upcoming open meetings and events!

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Latest

A triptych of three photographs showing small houses of different kinds. The first photograhp has five micro peaked roof houses in a row receding into a background with hills, a doghouse in front and a house being built in the back. The second has seven small houses with gently sloped roofs and various colors along a lanterned path, with a pond in the foreground. The third shows four shipping container based houses along a splitting gravel path.
November 10, 2023

Intentional Community Cluster Developments as conceived by Minneapolis

On 2018 December 7 councilmembers Cam Gordon, Jeremy Schroeder, and Jeremiah Ellison introduced an ordinance to the Minneapolis City Council to amend regulations related to inte

Land
November 4, 2023

The real state of homelessness in the city

Minneapolis's response to homelessness is cruel, unethical, and ineffective. 

October 31, 2023

We, the unhoused

We, the unhoused

Sunflowers growing in the foreground of Near North camp, with a sided self-build building, several recreational vehicles, and a standalone wood-sided enclosed shower stall building before bits of the skyline of Minneapolis and a deep blue and white clouds sky.
September 2, 2023

Our plan for housing people as quickly and affordably as possible

Encampments have proven people can house themselves quickly and inexpensively.

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We will help people who are unhoused and housing insecure in the Twin Cities to secure housing, self-determination, and a center of mutual aid by forming a community land trust (CLT) to acquire land in Minneapolis and support the capacity to build radically affordable legal dwellings.

Resources

A huge billboard on an empty piece of land with buildings on either side reads: "EVERYBODY WORKS BUT THE VACANT LOT" I paid $3600. for this lot and will hold it ‘till I get $6000. The profit is unearned increment made possible by the presence of this community and the enterprise of its people. I take the profit without earning it. For the remedy read ”HENRY GEORGE” Yours truly Fay Lewis

Land Value Tax

Eliminate economic rent—unearned revenue from having the monopoly on any piece (or many pieces) of land—and probably end houselessness, too, if paired with a resident's dividend, by taxing 100% of the annualized value of land that comes from surrounding community improvements (but do not tax the part of the value that comes from improvements made on the land).

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COVID-19 detection & prevention

A communal space with kitchen, baths, and a "living room" area is a key part of our plan for housing people affordably.  For this space to be as safe as it can be, we need affordable ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.  This resource gathers some tools we may be able to adopt.

Health

Heat pumps

Communal living, intentional community cluster development or "tiny home village" style, makes the possibility of far more efficient district heating.

Heat pumps are far more efficient than generating heat by burning oil or gas fuels or running electric heaters.

District heating for the housing provided by Gertrude Brown Community Land Trust could make the installation of a heat pump cost effective, in addition to being life saving and combating climate change.

A golden, cursive S R in a circle on a black background.

Shenoah Reed Foundation

Shenoah Reed Foundation, serving the Twin Cities, was created by and for people who have experienced economic hardship.  Its services include housing stabilization, public benefit application assistance, peer advocacy services, legal support, and mediation / alternative dispute resolution.

Legal services

Gertrude Brown was a community organizer for the Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House. The Phyllis Wheatley House was a resource hub for the Black community and women in Minneapolis. Brown helped organize childcare, housing and employment resources during the 1930s where social resources for Black Minneapolis residents were almost non-existent. Brown and the Wheatley House appointed women as the heads of the organization and women founded several community organizations.

From this stronghold of community and political action, Brown hosted meetings for the Pullman Porters union efforts. She also knew that the Wheatley House would shelter Black people who were being threatened and harassed by the police. Brown would stand by the front door with her rifle, willing to protect her community from police at any cost. 

Thanks to the work of Junail Freeman Anderson of Freedom From the Streets and Envision Community, a zoning ordinance unique to Minneapolis permits the creation of intentional community cluster developments— pretty close to a legal encampment.