Did you know?
The first community land trust, New Communities was created in 1969 to support black farmers.
Socially disadvantaged individuals are those who have been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice or cultural bias within American society because of their identities as members of groups and without regard to their individual qualities and the social disadvantage stems from circumstances beyond their control.
Louisiana ranks 49th in Concentrated Disadvantage based on “households below the poverty line, individuals receiving public assistance, female-headed households, [and] unemployment”
One of top solutions to cut poverty in the US is to invest in affordable, accessible housing
#WorldCLTDay2024 is May 17-18 this year and is in honor of Community Land Trusts working on affordable housing, land justice, and community empowerment
This week, we are going to hear about initiatives in the City-Parish that work to achieve those same goals. Likely the titles will be names you have heard. This hour will be to talk with you about what they are actually doing and how they are making a difference in our very own backyards. Learn with us and from our featured speakers:
Notes
Casey Phillips: Full circle that our presenters and the original, the early people on who are having it's interesting in the first 15 years of my adult life in my career, I worked in the music industry and the creative industry. And, I actually used to write like horror fiction and I just watched a lot of like more dark. Fiction and movies and stuff like that was like a buff of it, but it's actually, as I transferred into the work of the walls and doing community work in the heaviness of it and like the real life horror, and I'm not trying to be preachy when I'm saying this, it's like the things that we all see in this work on a day to day basis, all of my visual consumption has all shifted to like. Look, I'm not saying then truly I don't watch the Hallmark channel, no shade to anybody that does, but I get it because it's more visual comfort and like inspiration and like positivity. And I don't really gravitate towards the stuff like the witcher and, or anything that's more intense that raises like the intensity of it, because at the beginning of the conversation was around what our governor of Louisiana has been doing since coming into office. And we were just having conversations around preemption and what that means. And I just feel like everything's so intense in reality. Give me Harry Potter at the end of a long day, and I am much happier than watching, Black Mirror or anything like that. So that was what everybody walked into. Pepper, please take us down to the path of enlightenment.
Pepper Roussel: Not a problem. I will honestly say I was a huge fan of house of cards and the old Kevin's well, the, I guess that the American version with Kevin Spacey, but until it became super real and then I just couldn't watch it anymore. I'm just going to say it. It's true. However thank y'all for being here. Happy Friday and happy world community land trust day. Yeah. Today and tomorrow. Yeah. Today we are having some discussions about what are the things that are happening in your neighborhood. You know what? In your neighborhood. This is going to be a great talk in your neighborhood. And we're starting with the CPEX in your neighborhood. I can't stop now. I'm sorry. We're going to start with Kaysie and then move to Kendra. Mainly because we are more or less, we're going to be going first names, alphabetical and then give Ashlé, our new friend. We're going to, where'd she go? I don't know where you went, Ashlé, but I know she's somewhere and you'll go after Kendra. And then we are going to wrap it up with our friend, Manny, who's going to tell us more about community land trust. Kaysie Salvatore, would you mind sharing with us in your 5 minutes? That's who you are, what you do, and. What's going on at CPEX that we need to know about?
Kaysie Salvatore: Yeah. So I have met a few of you, but for those of you who don't know me, my name is Kaysie Salvatore. I am a community planner with CPEX and I'm going to talk to you guys a little bit about complete streets ordinances might not be the most fun topic, but it's great for the community. First of all, I want to thank one Rouge for being so supportive of us and participating in all of this. So the American Heart Association came to us, or we applied for a grant approximately 2022 to update the existing complete streets policy in Baton Rouge East Baton Rouge parish. Now, a complete street is basically a street that is for all people, right? So think cars, pedestrians, bicyclists, the disabled anyone and everyone can get along the roadway that way. And a good example of that is government street in Baton Rouge statistics show that it's doing great. So not only has. Business blossomed in that area. It's become like an arts community over there. Crashes have decreased about 50 percent since 2018. And we just see more and more people heading towards that area right now. As I had mentioned, there is a complete streets policy that exists that was adopted in 2014 by the East Baton Rouge Parish. But 10 years later, we're looking to do an ordinance. And so ordinances, I like to think, have. a little bit more teeth to them. They're more enforceable. So that's what we're looking to do. We have, Met with many stakeholders. So we've met with there's actually a complete streets advisory committee in Baton Rouge right now. They've been in existence since 2015. So we've worked closely with them. We've worked closely with Fred Rayford from the Department of transportation through the city parish, the mayor, AHA, smart growth America, anyone really, you name it. We've worked with them and we've taken. All their input. Decided what do you guys want from this? And try to put it into an ordinance. And so that's a lot of work. That's really hard getting everybody on board. So we took a very long time about a year and a half, I'd say to. Concoct this ordinance and make it applicable to everybody and everyone. And now we're just trying to get it to the finish line. So we've been meeting with Metro Council members. They seem to all be on board thus far. We met with the mayor. She seems very supportive of the ordinance and we are taking it to council next week, May 22nd for introductions. And so the setup of Metro Council here in Baton Rouge is you have to introduce it and then at the next meeting, you can adopt it. So our plan is to get the ordinance adopted June 12th. Anyone who wants to come and support is welcome. And yeah, so that's where we're at right now. Very exciting stuff.
Pepper: It is super exciting. You got a whole 2 minutes left.
Kaysie: That's wild. I was trying to rush through it.
Pepper: 2 minutes keep talking if you wish.
Kaysie: Okay, so what is to me, the most important aspect of this is Smart Growth America came out with a report a couple years ago, saying that Baton Rouge ranked the 11th worst for street design and deaths with pedestrians, bicyclists, all that stuff. Getting this pass will hopefully decrease the amount of deaths and injuries and crashes. And then also what's most important to me about this ordinance is there is an equity component associated with it. And it's only for public projects, right? When you're developing a public street project, for example, Move BR, you have to take equity into consideration and so we've developed a definition high needs census tract is what it's called and city parish can determine. What a high needs census. Yeah. Oh, one minute. Okay. What a high needs census track is. But we did an initial analysis that included health data, crash data, demographics, all that stuff. So that's also included in this ordinance. So we're very excited.
Pepper: That is outstanding. We will circle back if we've got some time. I know that Kaysie's got to jump early. So if you have any questions for CPEX or about complete streets, please drop those in the chat. So we can ask her before she's got to get to her next meeting. But I think that was a glorious segue into what's happening over at Build Baton Rouge. Kendra, if you wouldn't mind, let us know who you are, what you do and what it is that is happening. We would love to hear your 5 minutes starts now.
Kendra Hendricks: Thanks pepper. Good morning. Everyone. My name is Kendra Hendricks. I'm the director of operations and programs at Build Baton Rouge. And so right now, our main focus is the Florida Corridor study, but I would be remiss if I didn't start from the beginning and talk about what is. And so Build Baton Rouge is the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment authority, and so we developed in 2009 and we have legislation that enables us to formulate programs and use public and private resources for redevelopment. And so 1 of those tools is economic development district. Which was formed in 2022, the Cortana Corridor economic development district. Okay, and so that's who commissioned the study of the Florida Corridor from the levy to the parish line. And so this plan is supposed to provide a clear use of economic development for the whole corridor using current plans, not recreating the wheel, not being siloed, but incorporating, Move BR, incorporating future BR, all the plans that are going on now. And this plan is going to address transportation, land use, urban design, and community development. We have had several meetings, we've had open houses, we've had a lot of community input. The final plan and draft should be ready for next month. And we also have to go before the Planning Commission and Metro Council. So if you have any suggestions for us, or any comments, we do have a website, floridacorridorbr.com. You can provide your comments there. All of the neighborhood centers that have been proposed are on the website, and it's six of them. And you can look at those maps and give us your feedback.
Pepper: All right, y'all are just not chatty on this morning. That's fine with me. Kendra can stick around so we will we will have more from Kendra and that glorious shade of blue that she is wearing. And that'll be after we hear from our new friend Ashlé. And thanks again to Ebony for introducing us. I appreciate it. And in a true One Rouge fashion, please let us know who you are, what you do and how we can, what it is that we need to know about purposeful envision BR.
Ashlé Young: First I'll start off by saying, I am sorry for being in my car. I am officially in mom mode this morning. We have an award ceremony. So I'm sitting in the parking lot as I do this call. So I do apologize, real life today, but I'm happy to be here to discuss Purpose Built as well as Envision BR. Envision BR. I was hired and started on March 18th as the executive director to bring in this model into the neighborhoods of Easytown, Bogan Walk, Eden Park, Greenville Extension, as well as some of the surrounding areas around it, which we're looking at. We're calling them areas of impact and areas of target. And so we are utilizing the model that PurposeBuilt has been so successful with in approaching how we change the neighborhood and change lives. And in doing so, we're cultivating a community and tapping into this, their full potential. But we're not the only ones doing this because we are considered the neighborhood nonprofit. We are partnering with everyone. So everyone on this call, our potential partners our current partners in this work, and we're bringing everyone to the table so that we can be an asset to these communities that we're trying to work with. One of the things that we. Have been hearing and talking about a lot on some of the Purpose Built cause I've been a part of lately are where do you see yourself? How do you see Envision BR as a catalyst, a convener and a connector? And so one of the things that I have been telling people is we are a catalyst. We're looking at change and growth in 70802. We will also be ignited. Action in others, we will be working with the community to invoke a growth mindset of such and understanding what that potential looks like. Because I'm from 70802 easy town area. And when many people would meet me, they were like, wait a second. You're from where? Because they didn't understand, they couldn't connect me, Ashlé Hayes at the time, to the area because they always were like, you're so different. You don't come off like many from that area. Are you graduated from Capital? Tell me more. How did you make it? And I'm like, I'm still trying to figure out how to make it. But, I come from this area and, I've been placed in places where I can connect people to not just resources, but to opportunities. So being able to do so in this community capacity is like a dream come true. I look forward to working with everyone. I look forward to quarterbacking this position and just taking this neighborhood where, not where it used to be, but Utilizing that is our vision and our platform of where we're going to go, because we're trying to adapt the culture and shift some changes in that area. So we're seeking a really just partner with everyone, be it individuals or companies who seek to redevelop and grow, because our focus is mixed income housing, community wellness also They, we say cradle to to education pipeline, but it also gets a little murky when you think about prison cradle to prison pipeline. So just basically overall education, I see you Pepper when we're thinking about things like this. So we want to make sure that we're cultivating that as well as community wellness and building up those that who are entrepreneurs and they are giving them the skillset that they need to take their business to another level and bring in the resources that. Are that are missing. Like we have food insecurity. There's literally no grocery store in that area. That's close by a walking distance. We have no banks in that area. When I say people on community tours, I'm like, what are you missing? And I'm like where's the bank? How do I access my money? And I'm like, yeah, we don't have those that opportunity. And then being the executive director, where can I house My organization, there's no adequate options to house an organization and be able to operate on a larger capacity. So looking at all of the things that we're lacking and trying to figure out how we can bring that into the area, I believe that's a, that's really a big deal, and so we're just trying to make sure that we're utilizing a lot of the blueprints that are there, but also bringing our flavor to the work. You have questions?
Pepper: I love that. No, no questions just yet, but y'all know the drill. If you have any questions for Ashlé, please drop them in the chat and we will get back to to finding, digging down and understanding more after we hear from Manny, who is the reason that we are talking about World Community Land Trust Day. And Manny, please let us know today. Who you are today, who you are, what you do and what it is that we need to know. Your five minutes starts now.
Manny Patole: Thank you, folks, I love when Kendra laughs about that, because she always add premises each call with what project and work are we talking about for today?
Yeah, so thank you all today's world community land trust day. And I wanted to catch it 1st, with just a couple of points here. Community land trust also known as the CLT traditionally is a nonprofit organization that aims at providing affordable housing and community resources by acquiring and managing land. The core concept is to remove land from the speculative traditional market driven real estate market and to ensure long term affordability and community control. So there are 5 main points when we're looking at this for what is the CLT. So 1 is how we're shifting the idea of land ownership and housing structure. So a CLT owns the land, but not the structures on it. So that individuals and families can purchase or lease the buildings like. Homes, commercial spaces, and the like on the land. And usually, a CLT typically has a long term lease that's renewable, often 99 years, rather than outright owning the land. And the other third point for that is, usually when you're setting up these land leases with the individual, you're trying to prevent flipping, right? You don't want someone to come in, do a quick reno job and then sell it out. So you're trying to actually encourage the development of the community. Number 2 is affordability, right? So usually CLTs, if you've ever looked at Habitat for Humanity and some other places like what Envision BR is also going to be doing with us at some point in time. And I'll talk about who us is in a second. The CLTs really sell homes to individuals at below market rate, right? So if the market rate is at the 100,000. They'll probably sell it between 25 to 50,000, depending on the resale of sale and resale formula to maintain affordability over time. Resale restrictions are placed on the property when a homeowner decides to sell it. The resale price is often limited by a formula that's designed to provide a fair and adequate return to the seller while retaining some of the equity within the institution. Then reinvest that money in the community. In other wraparound services or assets, like Ashlé just mentioned for and for maintain the affordability for future buyers. Number 3 is a community control and governance, right? How are we starting to re-establish the agency of community by appointing a board of directors as composed of residents, community members and public representatives? That's usually a traditional tripartite, forward and then the government governance ensures that the CLT decisions reflect the needs and desires the community serves. Not necessarily the market, or people who own the property per se, and then some of the traditional benefits, right? You're starting to stabilize communities, right? Rather than having people come in and out, you're actually trying to make sure that people can stay and have security of tenure. By keeping housing affordable, we're trying to prevent displacement and gentrification, which are two different things. That one doesn't necessarily preclude the other. You're empowering residents by developing their knowledge of what's going on through participatory governance residents stay in and have decisions in their living environment. And also you're promoting equity, and this is also the key for all these conversations today is equity. How are we making sure that in our plans, in our projects and in our implementation of what we want to do in this city and cities across the world. That we're actually promoting equity and focus. On those underserved, under invested or disinvested communities. By providing opportunities for ownership and building wealth for those who might have not been able to do that or have been excluded for other reasons, because of governance and other things like that. And then there are many examples about this throughout the world. They can be used for residential housing, commercial spaces. Community gardens and other facilities, community facilities, they're looking at places like Chicago and New York, Boston as well. Most of them have been in the US, east of the Mississippi, which brings us to the Plank road community land trust, which is actually something different because we are a community land bank and trust with the work of Kendra and Build Baton Rouge, some of them funds from the J.P. Morgan Advancing Cities Grant developed through the advancing Plank road master plan. And then there's some other folks that are on here. I think some folks are from CPEX. I don't know. Carl Dylan is on. Yes, he is. Hey, Carl from Eurek. We're actually just giving you a quick update on the Plank road. All right. We've moved to an interim board. So folks, so David Beach from the Wilson foundation Lynn Clark from Habits, former Habitat Humanity David Summers from Gulf Coast Housing, Byron Washington from Community at Large are all on our board and helping us get this set up. And as we're doing that. We've coordinated with CPEX to get some added capacity. Carl Dillon has been so kind and been helping us develop our budget and our pro forma for proposals for actual funding. In coordination with CPEX, we've created a decision matrix to. Bring in the 1st, 10 properties that we want to develop 1 of which is the Erie street community park, which we work with a lot of community members, including the Walls, Southern and many other community organizations to actually have that as a community park. That's within the corner there to help with other environmental issues as well. Thank you. And I'll fill questions later. I took up all the extra time that everyone else didn't use.
Pepper: Before Kaysie leaves I got a stupid question and I'm not ashamed to say it. What, you said that the whole idea of Complete Streets is really one about equity, but also about making sure that everyone in community whether you are a walker, biker, a driver, somebody who is physically challenged, how is it that the street, right? So when I think of a street, I think of a thoroughfare, how do the streets and of themselves fit into these plans around making communities better? Is it just a faster way to get through? Or is there something more that we need to be considering when we think about a street?
Kaysie: Technically, a complete street should slower speeds, actually which, that's a red flag in some people's minds. But it helps with safety specifically. As I mentioned, government street has had a decrease of 50 percent crashes. But also, it just makes it's a way to make the community a place you want to live in or be in. So you're able to walk around. So that helps with health right there. I think there's a statistic out there where if you walk 5 miles a day, your cardiovascular risk drops significantly. And then also it's able to get you to your community connectors, right? So you're able to go to grocery stores or schools or parks or arts events that are going on along government street, for example. So it does Slow the speed down doesn't necessarily get you where you need to go much faster. But it does help with the community aspect and bringing people together helps with health safety, all those good things.
Pepper: So you're not talking about just the blacktop, you're talking about…
Kaysie: Sidewalks and green spaces, trees, plants, government street has a road diet so just chicanes or bulb outs, so anything that can help with getting people where they need to go safely.
Pepper: And did you say walking 5 miles a day or 5 minutes? Those are not the same.
Kaysie: I know. I think it is five miles can significantly decrease it, but even just walking a mile can drastically help your cardiovascular health. Yeah. 10,000 steps.
Pepper: Manny's not talking me into walking five miles anywhere. I'm telling you.
Casey: It's time to get it's time to get off that laptop, y'all. Let's go. Let's go. I said Dr. Bester, she's ready to meet me outside right now. I'm like, let's go. And let's go get our walking on. And we'll do it. Hey and I also know that Kaysie has to to leave. I just want to make sure and lift up and there are other people on the call that also deserve bouquets as well, but Pepper and Kaysie and everyone at CPEX with the AHA grant, right? To be able to push through for these last couple of years on a continuation of work that y'all were already doing, but I just want to make sure and commend y'all. We forget how many hundreds of hours of heartbeats by so many different people have to go into the smallest adjustment and Pepper and Kaysie are two amongst those humans. And I just want to lift it up to get the wind for the, for the city and the people. So celebrate it when it works and appreciate y'all.
Kaysie: Thank you. And I just want to say one last thing before I have to hop off. This Complete Streets Ordinance is very unique to Louisiana. There are some policies that exist throughout the state. The state itself has a policy on Complete Streets Ordinance, but since it's a page long, I believe, and again, a policy, it does not force a person to do something, whereas an ordinance does. Baton Rouge, I believe, is the second City in Louisiana behind New Orleans to adopt a well, to potentially adopt a complete streets ordinance. So we are moving in the right direction and we hope to take this to many other cities throughout Louisiana.
Pepper: Here, here! So thank you for being here with us as long as you could stay this morning. Kaysie, see you next time. And I know that Kendra mentioned that y'all are also going and talking with the Metro Council. Maybe there's a way that we can combine efforts. Can we take meetings together? Maybe do a potluck meet under the tree and picnic and discuss how it is that we are building a better places for folks in Baton Rouge
Kendra: Some short answer pepper. Yes, we can do that. We are not sure of the schedule yet. We think it may be early September before we go to Metro Council, but we can pass the information along to the One Rouge Coalition. We will be at the Transportation Coalition meeting next week. So if you have any suggestions, you can bring those to the coalition meeting next week.
Casey: Thank you for saying that and just want to reiterate it. We put it in the chat about the in person meetings next week. Kendra just lifted up the Transportation on Thursday at noon at the River Branch Library. If parking downtown frustrates you, feel free to come over to the Walls Project parking lot VIP parking allowed and get a couple of those steps towards the 10,000 over to the library. But I really wanted to lift up specifically for Ashlé, if you're still able to be on the line, I don't know if you transitioned back into your, okay, there you are Ashlé, I would really to ask because I know that there are a lot of different projects and they're all going to meet it and move at the speed of community and trust, right? I'm not trying to jump in too fast. But, next Tuesday in the Education to Career Coalition meeting at the library downtown, one of the four workgroups has been led primarily by Dustin LaFont of Front Yard Bikes and George Bell of United Way where we're talking about innovative ways of using school sites as community hubs, both existing or defunct. And I would love if you could maybe bring your voice and your perspective from the initial Eden Park Elementary conversations into that, because there are a couple of ideas that have been circulated by community members that didn't get to attend that caught my ear, and I know they're going to be there. And I just want to see if maybe we can bring some people from the coalition into your work, especially on the front end of it. So that community can walk with you the whole way. I'm sure it's not going to be an overnight success story, but it will be a success story, right? Because y'all are now locked in and we're all going to work together on it.
Ashlé: Correct. Correct. And I think that will work. I believe most of my days are free that next week in the, around that timeframe, so I plan to pop in. So I will be there parking VIP, getting myself sent.
Casey: Actually, I appreciate that you took me up on the invitation. You can even have mine. That's right off to the side. Okay. So that's the other thing. I'll go back to mute so Pepper can continue the conversation. But I see a lot of faces here that sometimes I run into you in the wild a lot. Sometimes you're here. Sometimes you're not. Really would love to see Marcela and Carl and Lynn and Brian and, Chris from the Chamber, everybody, Ms.
Valenzuela, who's been contributing in the coalitions and like a huge way. I need to see Carl. I hope to really see you all next week. Everybody's got to eat. Ebony come, please. I know you're a busy human. Please come with us. And come eat with us next week during the coalition meetings and so that we can continue this work together. We have a lot of exciting things to report out. But more importantly, we have a lot of exciting things to work on. So that are going to take some effort. So that's my that's my request. Back to me. Thank you, Pepper.
Pepper: Of course. Of course. Of course. I, that's what we're here for, right? That's what we're doing is really to make these connections. But as I asked the questions about how is it that these things fit together the inevitably when we talk about you what is that underlying threat? What is that connected tissue? And we hear from. Kaysie about the streets and making things watch walkable and what does it mean to be able to be healthy when we hear from Kendra about how it is that we are building in not only equitable solutions, but solutions that are based on the people who were there and not just the folks who pass through there. And then Ashlé who is building in ways that are super interesting, not novel, but that really do need a person to push forward in a lot of different ways. I circle back to this whole idea of a land trust and a land bank and need to understand what is the difference between these two, because Manny, you mentioned that you are both a land trust and a land bank. And I don't think I understand what the differences are. And if I can't own the land, why do I want to be there?
Manny: Yeah, so it's a very good question. Traditionally, your land bank is a municipal authority. That's been enabled by some sort of legislation here in the state. It's not allowed. It's not articulate, but it's not a standalone entity. So it is part of the redevelopment. Authority of Build Baton Rouge, which is also known as Build Baton Rouge. So they have properties that are within their purview. And then a CLT is usually a non profit organization that can operate with anywhere from within a certain, block or a certain part of the community. But they're not necessarily a public authority in some way, shape, or form. With the traditional issues of a land bank, they have easy way of acquiring land, either from tax liens or things that were abandoned donations and but they're not usually have the resources to develop those property on the other side with the community land trust. They have the ability to dispose or develop properties, right? Because they can coordinate with other entities, but they usually have a harder time acquiring land. Borrowing them at such a cost that can make it cost efficient and effective to actually make some affordable housing or other projects on those lands. Think about the work with Habitat for Humanity. For example, where can they do it? And how can they build all the total cost of ownership there? When we have our plant growth CLBT, because of some of the peculiarities of Louisiana law, and things like that. Some of the time to actually run prescription of those properties doesn't start until the land moves out of a government entity into some sort of 3rd party. So that's where our unique organization comes into play, where those properties can be held in trust for the community that could be developed by other organizations or within as well.
Pepper: A lot of words.
Manny: It's a lot. But at the end of the day, it's like, how are we going to make land accessible and affordable for people? That's where the CLT comes into play. And the land bank is there to make it a little bit easier for those folks like a CLT or the individual to access those properties that are being held by the local government.
Pepper: Silly questions. The trust holds the land and I buy the physical edifice that sits on the land in the case of, I don't know, cyclical disasters, such as we have in South Louisiana, where there might be a flood or a hurricane or tornado. How do I manage not only reporting to my insurance. But also getting things rebuilt, who do I need to, like, how does this work? The application I think is wonderful, especially if I'm looking at not having to pay full price, right? So if I can get a house for 50 as opposed to 100,000. But the reality of the situation is that chances are real good that there's going to be a problem. So what do I do then?
Manny: It's also an interesting question. That's been so we have an international network of CLT lawyers that are working on such questions like this, because 1 of the big items that's happening now is where CLTs have been popping up. There's also a high correlation of them being in areas that are subject to natural disasters. And so doing the idea is, yeah, you applied for traditional insurance for your house and things like that for those properties. But what happens in those instances if they're, if those properties are, Hopefully knock on wood here. They're not destroyed, but what happens if they do? So it's the idea of the reinvestment. And that's where that when you're thinking about that resale formula and how some of that money goes back into the entity, it can help offset some of those costs and be put in some sort of rainy day fund that can help offset the risk and have a pool of resources for the community to bounce back. As if it was a privately held piece of property that has a lot more money behind it.
Pepper: Gorgeous. And so Ashlé, is this something that y'all are spending a lot of time working on, or is this just part of the larger equation as you think about how it is that you're building and expanding community through Envision BR.
Ashlé: I'm sorry, my phone was going in and out. Can you ask the question one more time? I apologize.
Pepper: Not a problem, the land trust model. Is that something that y'all are focused on? Or is it just one of the initiatives that you're looking at as you are you expanding through this idea of purpose built communities?
Ashlé: So it is something that we're looking into. I will say that Ebony is also on the call. Wilson Foundation is really digging into that much deeper than EnvisionBR is doing. But David has talked to me several times about it and what that would look like when Envision BR is up and fully running and operating, and how that will be a great help to the community. I think Ebony may be able to touch on that a little bit more.
Ebony Starks: Yeah, thank you, Ashlé. I want to just make a distinction here because I think this can get really the land trust land bank intricacies can get really academic and the role that Envision BR would really play in this is more on an advocacy level. The challenges we see in Louisiana around the prescriptive period and legislation that really empowers our land banks. It's very limited. And of course, from a property rights perspective, that legislation is very strong. But as a state, it limits us from effectively redeveloping, adaptively reusing, and reinvesting in properties that are disinvested. And where EnvisionBR and the community would come into the land trust conversation, Is how can we advocate for change that would allow us to more effectively land bank and reuse this property to meet the affordable housing challenges that we have. And 1 of those things would be looking at when the prescriptive period starts in a lot of other states, and Gretchen can correct me if I'm wrong, because I want to make sure her expertise is acknowledged as well. The prescriptive period starts as soon as a property goes into your community land bank. Okay? That's a 501c3. The period starts, it's 5 years, and once that's cleared, you can then transfer and redevelop those properties. However, here in the state of Louisiana, it is not that clear cut, and it is much more difficult between 7 and 10 years to really redevelop and reuse a property, and the non profit developers take on the risk of developing on adjudicated property. Envision BR would be more focused on that systemic advocacy to change these really prohibitive laws to allow us to better address adjudicated and heir property.
Pepper: All right, I'm going to need you to unpack those real quick. What is adjudicated and what is AIR property? Are we talking A I R, AIR, or is there another kind of AIR? Don't be shaking your head at me, Flitcher Bell.
Ebony: I can, Gretchen, I'm happy to defer to you as I was not a scheduled part of this call, but heir as in H E I R. HEIR. And that means I am an heir. I inherit something. I am, I'm an heir of the king and queen. I remember it is like in my old time heir, but what that means for us uniquely, particularly in the communities that we're talking about, whether it's plank road with Manny the Florida boulevard corridor, or, in park and Greenville extension is properties where the owners have passed without a will. And those properties then become fractional between many areas. And of course Dr. Bester is quite the the expert on this as well. And so you don't have clear title. You have cloudy title. It can be lengthy and it can be costly to resolve those issues. Not to mention many of these residents live in legal deserts. So this is areas where they do not have accessible or affordable legal representation, and these properties can languish. They cannot be transferred or sold easily. That's the quickest way I can discuss the heir property issue, and so we've got to work at the state level and Envision BR. It's going to work on telling those resident stories because we are deeply affected by air property challenges, particularly in North Baton Rouge, but in the state as a whole. And then Gretchen, I'll let you talk a little bit more about the adjudicated piece.
Gretchen Siemers: Yeah, that's that's absolutely right, Ebony, in terms of the air property issues. And also, even folks who might have a will, it might not be completely legal and fireproof in case somebody challenges it, and then it's a long court and probate process. In addition, we have there's been some case law that requires in person notification to all of the potential heirs and they all have to sign off on any sale of the property, even though the property might be essentially worthless in money value just tracking these people down is very difficult. So adjudicated property really just means property that has not been that the previous owners had not been paying taxes on and so it goes to the city parish or to the parish essentially and in every parish in across the state it'll go to a tax sale of eventually Nobody pays taxes after five years. And then after 10 years, it's pretty much on, off the books. You can't really redeem it if you haven't paid your taxes in 10 years. But after five years, you can still come back and or before five years, you could try to pay your back taxes and get that property back if you want it. So the land bank, the redevelopment authority has an agreement with the parish, whereby we can acquire adjudicated properties. And so we have a number of these properties in our land bank, but unfortunately, because of the title issues, because of the case law that says that we have to contact every single potential heir, most of these properties have really cloudy titles and they're essentially worthless in the private market. So that's why we're working with non profits and developing this community land trust to get these properties off of our rolls and back into commerce.
Pepper: All right since Flitcher Bell was shaking his head at me, who are these people? And then I'm gonna circle back to Kendra, because I've got some questions about the land in and of itself. If it sounds like Ebony is right, that, you can have 26 heirs, but who's having 26 children? I know my cousin Zebbie had 12 with his first wife and then 11 with a second wife. But who is having these cousins? Zebbie was old when he died. Child. Anyways, what are we talking about? Where are all these people coming from?
Ashlé: Well pepper actually? So say your cousin Zebbie was one of 15 and all 15 have passed along. Then their children are heir to their property. So it just is a continuous cycle of trying to clear it all up. And unfortunately the cost is so costly trying to file succession to get these properties in your name, but it does become an issue within our communities that we're working with. So we're trying to figure out what that looks like. In an advocacy capacity, as well as bringing other partners to the table, and I see Alfreda Bester on the call. She was my Sunday school teacher guy on the call and she is brilliant as well, but people like back to the table to help us navigate what that looks like. And, it's just hard because also when you're trying to rehab your home or get assistance, if you don't have the title, you can't get any help. So that's why it's important to try to clear those titles up and get acquire that ownership.
Pepper: My word. So what y'all are telling me is that I need an actual valid will and leave it to people who I know are there. Cause I noticed that nobody has mentioned the unfortunate circumstance since y'all looking for folks that is related, the outside families, child, the extra children that nobody wanted that mid exists, let's see ATB over here. What can I let you know? How does this Actually, Kendra, how does this impact, like this lack of ownership and this idea of having to make changes at a state level? How does that impact how the work that y'all are doing at Build BR?
Kendra: The issue is, if we have cloudy titles, we just have to hold property. So we are tasked with maintaining properties that we don't own. So we're cutting the grass. We're making sure that people don't dump. 30 tires from shops, and so we're spending money cleaning properties that could be used to further commerce, but we can't clear the title because it's too expensive to clear the title with no plan for it.
Gretchen: Just as an example, we have a property up on scenic highway that is a larger property 5 acres. We've been working on clearing the title now for a year, and we've spent about $60,000 so far, and it's not even set in stone that it's going to be cleared because the previous owners were in a blind corporation, I think that's what it's called, where the owners were not listed on the Secretary of State website, and so we had to, do all this detective work to try to track them down and We're probably going to spend, another $20, 30 grand before it's done.
Pepper: Is that the, like, when I see people advertising, you can buy a property for the back taxes, is that the same thing where you're buying the property for the back taxes?
Gretchen: Yeah. So the parish partners with a company called Civic Source. And the sheriff's office does an auction and Civic Source provides like a watered down property title. It's really not usually enough to get a loan or mortgage on the property, but you can get the Civic Source title. If you're paying cash for a property and you need to get title insurance it's, most developers would not take that. Most home builders say, it's a big source title is not adequate.
Ebony: Pepper, that's what I mean when I say our nonprofits are bearing the brunt of this bad state policy and these legislative barriers because nonprofits like Habitat do take that risk. And they do develop affordable housing on those properties, but in the chance that somebody on this quasi clear title wants to come back and redeem their property, and they're able to habitat has to promise to rebuild a home for them. That is comparable. So we have a nonprofit taking on the risk of bad and ineffective legislation and our own profits are doing that across the region. Many of them are on this call. One touch is, putting their. But into the same game with redeveloping housing for our most vulnerable populations.
So I just want to say there's I want to make sure that we're connecting the land trust piece to the role of the organizations on this call and how it affects those who are participating in our nonprofit ecosystem and helping our most vulnerable populations.
Pepper: Thank you, Ebony. I just love connecting dots. It makes me so happy. And so there is a question in the chat. I don't want to move too far without getting an answer for this, but do y'all have a list of properties that you've held? For 10 years, is there?
Kendra: We have the properties on it's called the building blocks website. I can stick it in the chat and it'll tell you how long we've had the property. I do want to clarify one thing, though, Pepper. I know we talked about city parish. So the city parish has its own adjudicated property process. You can go to city parish yourself. And pay $500, and then try to clear a property on your own. Or you can use CivicSource. It costs more, but they have a more of a guaranteeable title, which is, it still may be cloudy, but you may be able to get insurance better than you going out on your own trying to find all the heirs. And then we have us.
Pepper: Wait a minute. And so what do I get at the end of the 500? Because that's
Kendra: The 500 is the beginning. So you just getting started. So you get a chance to be a part of the auction and find this property and you find this gem and you say, okay, I want to redevelop it. But you have to go yourself and find all the heirs and do all the searching and all that, whereas CivicSource will do it for a nominal fee, which is higher than you doing it on your own, but they have entities that will ensure their titles.
Pepper: There's so much information going on here today. My little head is just swimming. So we are at 9:22 and I want to make sure that we get last words and that you'll tie this up in a nice little boat for us. Help me understand what it is that you need from the folks who are on the call, what did the folks on the call need in order to make affordable housing and communities that much better and easier to navigate? And if that answer is to pick it outside of the capital in order to get better legislation, tell me that. But what I don't want you to tell me is that everything's just fine and it's all gonna be great. Because we know that things don't just happen on their own. What are our marching orders? What's the action item on the table?
Manny: Kendra, you want to start?
Kendra: I was going to let you start Manny,
Manny: I think 1st and foremost supporting those organizations within the community that are advocating for equity for all. I think there's a lot of folks here that are doing it in different ways that are trying to get the word out about how others are trying to subvert equity. I can say that because I'm not from here. And may not feel the repercussions later on. So I'll take that hit. But the idea is that how many times, what's the difference between putting something on paper versus in practice, right? Or what's being said in or out, behind closed doors versus to the public, right? Continue to fight for the equity for not just yourself, but your neighbors. Just because things are going okay for you it doesn't mean it's going okay for them. And I think the other part about this is, learn something new every day about any of this stuff, whether it's like, how we've been having these calls or are learning more about this connect with those folks that are in these spaces and attend those events and show up where you can.
Kendra: Thanks Manny, for us, just to know that this work. Is tedious and that we are working. I know. Sometimes you may hear a narrative what does Build Baton Rouge do, but we are working. We're here. We're doing the work and for the community to come out. To the open houses, if there's some feedback you want to give, please give feedback. We have a website. We have email addresses. If it's something that you see that. You think needs to be done contact us, be a community partner. We also have board meetings. We meet once a month. The usual cadence is the 3rd, Thursday of the month. We've been a little bit off of that, but if you want to be on the mailing list to find out when the next meeting is, we can address that and make sure that, when the next meeting is and you can attend the meetings here and you can hear 1st hand.
Ashlé: For Envision BR, I would say since we're relatively new to the work we just need the true support. We want everyone on the ground that's working. So reach out to us and connect with us because I know some people and I don't know many of them, my previous employer was able to connect with a lot of people, but I want to connect in genuine ways with everyone. I want us to be able to work on the ground together so that they can see, the communities can see that we are in this together because sometimes they see one partner or they see another partner and they're like, it's so many of you guys and you just explain what you do as a whole. So coming together is one true unit to having a seat at the table, but we can't make it work in our community. You can see greater day by day and just true partnership. I dropped our link in the chat box. So if you can just type, put your information in there, I think that would help us stay connected. And we can, once we start having different meetings, we can also invite everyone. And I will also stay connected to the One Rouge calls.
Pepper: And that, my friends, is the thing I wanted, that you'll be here with me on Friday mornings, just chit chatting about the things that are going on. And all that said, speaking of things that are going on, what's happening in Baton Rouge this weekend, y'all? Eh, or Next week starting at the bottom. Good night. All right.
Casey: We've got pepper. Pepper I thought that we also missed just like a little quick opportunity with Manny's hair and the other rabble rousers on here. And what's up shane? It's good to have you from NYC here today and It feels like a time portal between you and Manny's. Maybe zoom right now, but radical ideas, like what is the radical idea that needs to be implemented to drastically shift because this, incremental change is important and I'm not discounting it, and especially since we all pour our hearts into a lot of incremental change, but what's the radical change that needs, that would really open this up,
Chris Spalatin: Casey I was thinking the same thing. And I go to all these. Accelerator programs and startups. And it's always about a rural rideshare, for college students or it's the Uber eats of laundry or cleaning your house or whatever it is. But I wonder if there's any sort of. Innovation or something on the data end for, I think I'm already forgetting what the name of the organization was, like the, I guess if there's the state one that does works on the adjudicated property titles or whatever and I think Kendra was describing that the parish kind of has its own thing and, or maybe that was Gretchen, but I guess maybe there's room for some energy in that space on the kind of tech startup side.
Casey: Yeah, that's right. Manny, jump in and then Marcela.
Manny: Yeah, so I think for us, it's
Pepper: Manny's beard is at it again. See? It when his hair was talking.
Casey: Yeah. Yeah. Then it just like it all just like shuts down Marcela Did you want to jump in on this subject or do you have a community announcement? I want to make sure to respect the hand
Marcela Hernandez: Community announcement.
Casey: Okay, cool. We're gonna come right back
Kendra: I can jump in before Manny comes back.
Casey: Yeah, come on Kendra
Kendra: What we need is advocacy on title clearing like we clear titles differently in every single parish. So if we don't understand what we're doing You And, between parishes, how can we clear the title playing titles differently in New Orleans clearing titles differently in Lafayette clearing titles differently in Baton Rouge. If we are like, 1 standard way to. Help clear a title that would be awesome.
Pepper: Is that something that we can do independently or is that something that needs to be changed on a systemic level?
Kendra: I think a systemic level.
Pepper: What you know, good ATB, is it systemic or can we just decide we're all going to do it the same way or is there something special that needs to happen?
Alfreda Tillman Bester: I thought I was going to escape today. It's definitely systemic and you know you have the look the different parishes that want to do things differently because they want to maintain certain autonomy. It has to be done legislatively, at the state level, if it's going to be consistent. From parish to parish, a lot of it has to do with families and their inability to hire an attorney to do a succession when someone passes. It's expensive and we just need a better way to do it. But one of the things that I thought of that hasn't been discussed publicly is the making a deposit into the registry of the court based on the value of the property. And that way, perhaps you don't have to worry if someone comes back to ask for the property back after someone has built on it. So if you put it in based on market value of the property at that time that it is adjudicated, or at the time that it is sold then you wouldn't have to come back and say, okay, you're going to have to move off because you've taken care of the heirs based on deposit. Now, there's some other nuances that are tied up in that. So it's just something to start thinking about, but it would, it is systemic and it would require something at the legislative level. Good luck with that. It doesn't go well, I dunno.
Pepper: Oh, I'm like I'm the property goes, but y'all know it if a Johnny Ruth dies. She has six living children and all of them have children of their own. You know who the property goes to. I don't understand why there's all this confusion.
Alfreda: It's because who's going to redeem it. Who if one, one family member redeems it everybody has an ownership interest in it. And everybody's going to want to claim their part. Once that, so you have to notify everybody and, but you don't have to notify everybody individually. If you don't know how to find them, you can put something into the public into the authorized publications that attempts to notify them, there are ways to do it. It's just expensive any way that you go. And risky.
Pepper: And it sounds like something Ebony was talking about. All right.
Casey: Last part, because I am going to jump off. I just want to lift up Chris. I love, like, where you brought this because I'm hearing private sector, innovation, private sector. And when I hear high risk. That's exactly what VCs do. They invest in high risk all the time. And I'm wondering if there is some exists somewhere in here besides state legislative change, which I agree with ATB. And by the way, hello, Dr. Bester. That is difficult. I find this interesting, like this little frequency that we're circling right here. There's something here. I just don't know what it is because I'm not the one for that. But thank you for lifting that up and everybody for your perspective today. I appreciate you. And thank you for the speakers today.
Chris: Thank you Casey.
Pepper: I believe in ATB. All right. So thank y'all. Looks like we've got a healthy housing group that might be interested in helping with clearing title legislation, which sounds like an amazing thing, and I don't know, Manny and his hippie ideas is shifting me to Manny, are you able to come off mute?
Manny: Shared equity is the secret of experimentalism. It's part of the private sector thing, but it's also about encouraging people to try new things and shifting this side, right? When you're thinking about CLTs and some of this other work, it's how are we moving back to what made this country great and other countries great too. Is that how we were helping each other out, not just for economic interest, right? And how can we, you can still make a profit and still help people. It's not an exclusive thing there, right? You can make $1000 or you can make $500. You're still getting the it's the, that's where we need to shift. Then how can we have those. Design thinking mindsets, and how can we have these other models that can make sure people have housing? We talk about Houston and they just resolve some of their issues by just putting people down. But, we can worry about some of the other stuff, but if you put someone into a house, that 80 percent of the people who are experiencing a lot of those issues, maybe those 80 percent of those issues go away. Now, you only focus on, you can dedicate 20%. More onto something else, right? So get people into homes, get them into schools, get them educated at an early age. Let's start this wheel going forward, not backward.
Pepper: Well said, sir. Said. Marcela, you had a community announce Equity. Equity. Marcela had a community announcement.
Marcela: Yes, good morning, everyone. And I hope that all of you guys are safe today after that horrible storm we had last night talking about housing and talking about equity. I know a lot of people are definitely suffering from our weather. And unfortunately are suffering. Our weather is suffering because of our consequences as humans are not taking care of this environment. So just got to say that. But anyways so some announcements tomorrow, Saturday, May 18 from 5 to 7 p. m. We're going to be celebrating our womens, our mothers we have a woman's wing program here where we have an opportunity for our women to talk about challenges, also to connect with other community members and really enjoy the fact that we are immigrant women and to amplify their voices. So tomorrow we're going to be celebrating Mother's Day. If you did not celebrate it, Woman's Day, and you would like a place to come and celebrate your motherhood experience, please come and join us. It's going to be here at the office at the Family Youth and Service Center from 5 to 7 p. m. So we hope that you can come. We're also tomorrow from 6 to 7:45, if weather permits, we're going to have our Baton Rouge Unification Cup Finals. So we made it to the end, and tomorrow is going to be Santa Lucia versus France. If you guys like soccer, and if you're looking for something fun to do please come and join us. This is going to be at Burbank Soccer Complex Field 4, and this is located on Burbank Drive. Now, if you guys would like to come and set up a table, maybe you guys would like to come in and do some outreach while having fun, you're more than welcome to do it. You can come and set up a little resource table super welcome to do it. Also, Sunday the 26th we're going to be at the Forest Community Park and this day we're going to be celebrating Africa. So it's going to be a really nice picnic style. This one's going to be from 2 to 5 p. m. and this is our Africa Day celebration. So please make sure you put it on your calendar and come and enjoy and celebrate our African sister and brothers. Finally Friday the 31st we're going back to our One Community Dialogues. I just want to remind some of you, our One Community Dialogues is a virtual platform that we use to educate our community members about important topics that matter. If you would like to be part of this platform, if you would like to present in one of those sessions please let me know. I will be more than happy to put you in our calendar of activities. And last but not least, World Refugee and Immigrant Day is coming up, June 22nd, 2pm.
Pepper: So wait, hold on, Marcela, before you go Africa is a big place.
Marcela: Oh, I'm sorry, something happened.
Pepper: What part of Africa are we talking about? Because, I want to know where my jollof rice is coming from.
Marcela: You know that yellow rice from Sierra Leone, of course. Yes. No, I thought that you heard me. I'm so sorry. I've muted myself and I thought that you heard me. So what was the last thing that you heard me talking? What was the last thing you heard me saying?
Pepper: You said last but not least. Okay.
Marcela: Last but not least, World Refugee and Immigrant Day. June 22nd, 2 p. m. at the Rivers Center. If you want your organization to be part of this amazing and unimaginable and unforgettable event, register, okay? We are accepting, we're still accepting registration tables for resources communities please come and register in the soccer field is four. Yes, please. And it is yes, you got the address. You got everything. And it's going to be from six to 7:45. So hopefully we'll see you there. That's it. Thank you. Thank you.
Pepper: Thank you. Thank you, Chris.
Chris: Yeah Marcela I've been working with a guy that's been in the ice cream business for a while and he's opening up a commissary kitchen and last time off of airline when I just met with him, he also said, by the way, I'm starting the Louisiana Hispanic business hub. So something I'm still finding out, but I'm happy to get connected to you and introduce you guys. I did want to mention that Monday morning 10 o'clock at the Capitol, there'll be a rally. Against anti Semitism. So hopefully that's something where everyone's behind. It's being put on by Senator Cassidy and the young Republicans are organizing it. The ADL I serve on the board they are supporting this. In an ideal world, it would be apolitical, the next best thing would be for it to be bipartisan. And it's just we're having a little bit of trouble. We heard about this at the last second. So I know I will be there. And if anybody is interested in coming to experience this and hopefully have a good, quick morning at the Capitol. I dropped a flyer in the chat.
Pepper: All right. We do have a question. Marcela, I think this is for you or Dauda, if you're still on the line, what time is soccer at field four?
Marcela: Okay. So the soccer is from 6 PM to 7: 45 and yes, it is field 4 for Burbank soccer complex. And I'm working on putting the flyer on the chat. Just trying to figure this out, how to transfer it from my cell phone to here. I'm working on that right now.
Dauda Sesay: If I just wanted to add for those that wanted to set up a resource table, the tailgates start at five. So you can come five o'clock and put a tailgate and actually, I know it's the weather if the weather permits, because we have USA versus Vietnam doing tailgates, so we play for third place. Yeah. So USA versus Vietnam. So during the tailgates, we're going to have that friendly match play for the third place. But yes You can come in there by five to set up resource table. They will be tailgating, but the game will start at six.
Marcela: And I just put the flyer on the chart.
Dauda: And there is no registration to set up resource table for the soccer game. Yeah, but for World Refugee Day, yes, you have to register. And we're almost getting to capacity for a resource table, so the earlier you register, the better it could be.
Marcela: Both flyers are in the chat. Yes.
Pepper: Thank you. Alright, I don't see anybody else off mute, and I don't see any more hands up. So that sounds like a whole lot to do coming up this week, up to and including the in person meetings that will be held at the downtown library starting on Tuesday, this coming week, and that'll be in enough time for y'all to hang out and do whatever it is that you're going to do for Memorial Day as well. If you skip in town on Friday afternoon, after the call, that is, please feel free to join us at the library for the in person meetings if you can. Marcela?
Marcela: I'm sorry, I just have to say because I thought Reverend Anderson was here, but since she's not here, I'm gonna say it. Today she's having a big event I'm almost a hundred percent sure it's at the public downtown library from 2:30 to 4:30. So for those who support Reverend Anderson's, I know she's going to be given some awards, some recognitions to individuals that are been working with the community, for the community. So it is today from 2:30-4:30 So if you wanna come and show some support and also. Celebrate all of those recognitions that they're going to be doing.
Pepper: Super sweetness. All right. So thank you so much for hanging out with us today. I really appreciate all the information that was shared. Hopefully it is useful for those of us who are working in these areas. Those who want to just pass on information, those who want to be involved, those who have jazz hands, I'm looking at you guys. Otherwise, we will see y'all right back here next Friday, same bat time, same bat channel. Have a great weekend, y'all.
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