State Sen. Lea Webb ‘04 announced that the Southern Door Community Land Trust will receive $815,000 in state funding to build affordable housing units in Broome County by the end of 2026.

The funding comes from the New York Senate’s Local Community Assistant Program, which supports grants to community service projects and organizations with the backing of a state senator. The money will go to the organization’s “first permanently affordable housing units,” which will help mitigate the effects of the housing crisis by funding rehabilitation programs.

“Securing $815,000 in state funding for the Southern Door Community Land Trust is an important step toward revitalizing our community and preserving affordable housing,” said Webb in a press release. “We’re not only improving structures but also strengthening the foundation for long-term stability and opportunity for local families by investing in building rehabilitation.”

Founded in 2019, the Southern Door Community Land Trust is a nonprofit that helps vulnerable Broome County residents find affordable and stable housing. Through its Youth Story Corps, the organization seeks to involve young people in housing justice advocacy. The organization released two documentaries through these efforts: “Housing is a Human Right” and “Housing in the Time of COVID,” produced in 2020 and 2021.

The Southern Door Community Land Trust hosts monthly virtual meetings that allow Broome County residents to share experiences and brainstorm ideas that benefit the community. The organization also launched the Housing Educator Program, training participants to pass a federal housing counseling exam. The program works to guide “historically marginalized” groups to homeownership, with its website stating the organization “is committed to ensuring Black Lives Matter in all spaces by advocating for affordable, stable housing and dismantling discriminatory systems.”

According to a 2023 Broome County study, home prices increased by 43 percent between 2013 to 2022, with a 33 percent increase from 2019 to 2022. Webb said the new funding will help ensure more affordable housing for residents of Broome County.

“Housing is a fundamental human right,” Webb said in an announcement. “So whether you are someone that is of higher means, or if you are someone who has limited or no income, it is still a fundamental right. And so the work of this great organization is to bridge that gap.”

In the United States, the first community land trust was created in the late 1960s during the civil rights movement to help southern Black sharecroppers regain control of the land they had lost after registering to vote. During the 1980s and 1990s, land trusts spread northward to provide housing stability in disinvested areas, according to Olivia Williams, executive director of the Madison Area Community Land Trust in Wisconsin.

Despite the positive impacts of community land trusts, Williams argued in a 2019 Jacobin article that many land trusts have abandoned their advocacy for “community control of land” and instead morphed into a “group of affordable homeownership providers largely delinked from grassroots organizing efforts.” She added that innovative funding models and federal grants for community land trusts could help communities regain autonomy and incentivize organizations to work more directly with residents dealing with the housing crisis, which could help promote their former goal of community land ownership.

“With the Senator’s support, we’re pressing ahead to have these units completed and occupied before the end of 2026,” said Hajra Aziz, executive director of Southern Door Community Land Trust, in a press release. “Now we need our local leaders, community stakeholders, and financial institutions to match the Senator’s resolve and help Southern Door close the remaining funding gap so we can cross the finish line on this one-of-a-kind project.”

The Southern Door Community Land Trust did not return Pipe Dream’s requests for comment.