OUR JOURNEY

We are on a journey to establish the first community land trust in Mountain View, and one of few community land trusts in the Bay Area governed by working class Latino immigrants. We anticipate being able to purchase our first building in 2025.

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The steps that we have taken towards our long-term vision include: 

  • Incorporated a new nonprofit organization.

  • Successfully advocated to the City of Mountain View to incorporate goals around community ownership of housing in Housing Element, and then allocate $4M for acquisition and preservation, including for community ownership models. Participated in a Sacramento lobby day with various state legislators to build support for a housing bond as well as for a community anti-displacement and prevention program.

  • Initiated conversations with a couple potential partners with real estate acquisition and property management expertise who could provide critical technical capacity and/or training. 

  • Contracted with Evergreen Collective and California Strategies to co-lead a philanthropic capital campaign and a significant effort to bring public (city, county, state, and/or federal) resources to cumulatively raise a total of $10M for a first demonstration project.

  • Started educating and organizing tenants around community ownership of housing, and trying to identify buildings that would be a good fit for acquisition.

  • Became members of CA CLT Network to learn, connect with other CLTs, receive technical assistance, and build relationships with, learn, and be mentored by other Latino-led CLTs like South Bay Community Land Trust, T.R.U.S.T. LA, and Fideicomiso Comunitario de Tierra Libre.

  • Connected with local CDFIs and financial institutions such as Housing Trust of Silicon Valley, Bay Area LISC, Community Vision, SF Housing Accelerator Fund, and LENDonate on potential bridge financing options.

  • Assembled a team of committed primarily Mountain View resident volunteers who support in policy and advocacy, communications, fundraising, operations, tenant education, and more.

In the coming months, we will continue to work towards lining up the appropriate resources, partnerships, and capacity to be able to acquire and preserve our first building in 2025.

  • Established a Leadership Council made up of working class Latina immigrant women to govern, direct the strategy of the organization, and do much of the work.

  • Participated in several capacity building initiatives focused on real estate, community land trusts, and leadership development, including participating in SF Community Land Trust’s CLT Capacity-building Collaborative; SV@Home’s CDC/community real estate cohort; and Urban Habitat’s Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute.

  • Started to work with a pro-bono law firm, GCA Law Partners, to handle all legal matters.

  • Partnered with Stanford’s Urban Studies department to have students research and produce various reports and analysis on community land trusts.

OVERVIEW AND NEED

  • Mountain View CLT is a nonprofit community land trust initiated in late 2022 by a group of working class, immigrant community members to acquire and preserve affordable housing in community control in order to address displacement, lack of housing stability and affordability, and housing justice.

    Mountain View CLT builds off of 20+ years of community organizing in Mountain View by the 7 founding members of its Leadership Council. Our experience includes participating in a broad community coalition to get a rent control ballot measure passed in Mountain View in 2016; participating in and/or serving in leadership positions in community groups like CAT (Community Action Team) and Mountain View Tenants Coalition; organizing around local school and district Latino parent groups; graduating from the city’s Latino civic leadership academy; and establishing Fondo de Solidaridad | MV Solidarity Fund, a mutual aid relief fund that redistributed $2M+ to 1,000+ primarily working class, Latino immigrant families during COVID. 

  • Mountain View CLT is led by a Leadership Council of 7 working class Latina immigrants who live in nonprofit affordable housing complexes, mobile home parks, and/or older “naturally affordable” housing. In our current situations, we and working class families in our community are constantly stressed by the uncertainty; fearful of the threat of displacement through redevelopment or eviction by unscrupulous landlords; afraid of making too much or too little money and becoming ineligible for affordable housing; and burdened by having to pay up to 80% of our income on housing. We understand the challenges and shortcomings of current affordable housing models, and, similar to other efforts our leadership has participated in like Fondo de Solidaridad and COVID relief redistribution of funds, we are best positioned to design solutions that meet the needs of our community. 

  • We envision a future where working class Latina immigrant mothers like the Leadership Council and their families have dignified, safe, long-term, stable, community controlled, affordable housing. 

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