Housing Justice

Examine permanently affordable housing models within the context of The COVID-19 pandemic, which has left millions unable to pay rent, and fueled a swell of evictions, worsening an already dire housing crisis.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This survey course provides an overview of permanently affordable housing solutions to today’s housing crisis while giving students transactional experience drafting bylaws for a Community Land Trust (CLT). We will examine and analyze case studies of successful CLTs, Land Banks, Limited Equity Housing Cooperatives, permanent tent encampments, and cohousing communities from around the United States, comparing to international models when applicable. We will look at challenges in implementing these housing alternatives on a larger scale, including discriminatory banking and zoning practices. Course assignments will include reading from academic journals and independent news sources, as well as watching videos and documentaries about affordable housing initiatives nation-wide. The course will feature guest speakers from Community Land Trusts who partner with tenant-owned cooperatives to facilitate the acquisition of properties, as well as policy makers, who will discuss the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act and Community Opportunity to Purchase Act in Washington DC, New York, Massachusetts, and the Bay Area.

What You’ll Learn:

Students will gain a familiarity with:

Model governance structures of housing entities, and how to write Bylaws for an emerging nonprofit Community Land Trust.
Transactional legal documents for housing entities, such as 99-year ground leases that keep housing affordable in perpetuity, with resale restrictions.
Key components of Washington DC’s Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) and proposed TOPA bills around the country.

Instructor

Julie Gilgoff

Julie Gilgoff is an Adjunct Professor at CUNY Law School who has published widely about issues of gentrification and the housing crisis. Most recently, she published an article in the ABA’s Journal of Affordable Housing about pandemic-related homelessness and innovative strategies to create additional non-congregate housing for society’s most vulnerable.

After law school, Professor Gilgoff worked for the Bay Area Community Land Trust and the Sustainable Economies Law Center in Northern California, focusing on tenant-owned, permanently affordable housing. She has published articles on the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act and collaborates with housing practitioners and policymakers on various coalitions. Gilgoff is a licensed attorney in NY, NJ, and CA, who has practiced as a Staff Attorney at New York Legal Assistance Group and New Jersey Legal Services. She received a BA from Barnard College, MA in Education from CUNY Queens College, and her JD from CUNY Law School.