Favela Community Land Trust Publications & Presentations
Publications
The Growth of the Global CLT Movement Series
October 2019—In celebration of the 50th anniversary of New Communities Inc., the world’s first Community Land Trust, and as planners and community members alike gather to celebrate at the Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia, RioOnWatch issued a call for articles highlighting the current growth of the CLT movement worldwide. Contributors wrote in from around the world, with stories about the expansion of CLTs—both in number and in approach—in Mississippi, the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Puerto Rico, Rio de Janeiro, and Florida. This varied series disseminates news of the successes of the CLT model as it adapts to new times and circumstances, bringing greater attention to this innovative solution to guarantee the right to housing and community development, and its potential in resolving the global housing crisis. Link: www.bit.ly/CLTMovementROW
Chapter “The Favela Community Land Trust: A Sustainable Housing Model for the Global South”
June 15, 2019—Written by CatComm Executive Director and co-coordinator of Rio de Janeiro’s Favela CLT Working Group Theresa Williamson, and published in Vienna Architecture Museum’s exhibition book Critical Care: Architecture and Urbanism for a Broken Planet, edited by Angelika Fitz and Elke Krasny (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2019). The book is a compilation of beautifully illustrated essays and case studies on how architecture and urbanism can help care for and repair a broken planet. It is part of a current exhibition at the Architecture Museum of Vienna and is published by MIT Press. Purchase your copy here or scan the book here.
Thesis “The Experience of Community Land Trusts in Promoting Affordable Housing and Resistance Against the Commodification of Land”
December 2019—Research conducted by Felipe Litsek, a member of the Working Group, and presented to qualify for his law school graduation. The thesis anlyzes the CLT in this current moment of land regularization in Brazil. Sewn together are considerations about the model’s applicability in the country and its potential to protect land rights and the right to housing in urban informal settlements. Contact felipe[at]comcat.org for more information.
Chapter “Community Land Trusts in Informal Settlements: Adapting Features of Puerto Rico`s Caño Martín Peña CLT to Address Land Insecurity in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil”
Forthcoming—Theresa Williamson and Tarcyla Fidalgo, co-coordinators of Rio de Janeiro’s CLT Working Group, contributed to a chapter, along with Line Algoed, María E. Hernández-Torrales, Lyvia Rodríguez Del Valle, and Alejandro Cotté Morales in the forthcoming book On Common Ground: International Perspectives on the Community Land Trust, edited by John Emmeus Davis, Line Algoed, and Maria E. Hernandez-Torrales. The book is due out in June 2020 via Terra Nostra Press (Madison, WI). The book will be available in digital formats and through print-on-demand from the Center for CLT Innovation (www.cltweb.org) after June 1, 2020.
Chapter “Proporcionar seguridad de tenencia para los actuales habitantes del barrio”
Forthcoming—Theresa Williamson contributed a chapter to the book Barrio 31, los inicios de una operación transformadora, edited by Agustina Gonzalez Cid and published by the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, DC. In 2017 Williamson had been part of an IDB panel providing input to Buenos Aires’ Barrio 31 redevelopment plan.
Presentations
Guest speaker at 35th anniversary of Champlain Housing Trust, the world’s largest CLT
November 14, 2019—Theresa Williamson delivered a speech at the Burlington City Hall in Burlington, Vermont, to a full house of housing advocates and community members committed to the city’s CLT. CHT is responsible for providing 8% of the housing in Burlington and has developed a homelessness-to-ownership housing pipeline through their CLT. Williamson’s talk, “Community Land Trusts and the Global Housing Crisis,” shared the progression of the model from the US Civil Rights movement to informal settlements of the developing world, with a focus on the current work of the Favela CLT Working Group in Rio de Janeiro.
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Features Theresa Williamson Discussing Potential of Community Land Trusts in Rio’s Favelas
December 20, 2017–Catalytic Communities’ Theresa Williamson was welcomed to the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy (LILP) by Martim O. Smolka, director of the Program on Latin America and the Caribbean, on November 16, 2017. Check out the article published about her talk on LILP’s blog and watch the video here. The slideshow is also available here.
Biennial of the Americas presentation on panel “Bringing Empathy Home: Housing Innovations from Abroad”
September 25, 2019—Theresa Williamson spoke on a panel at Denver’s Biennial of the Americas, sharing Rio de Janeiro’s growing Favela CLT movement with participants from across the Americas.
Panel presentation in San Juan at ‘International Conference on Recovery, Titling and Displacement: Reflections Rooted in Community Organizing
May 2, 2019—Organized by representatives from the Caño Community Land Trust, the event took place at the Architects’ and Landscape Architects’ College of Puerto Rico during the community’s international peer exchange supported by the Ford Foundation.
Interviews
Interview on Lincoln Institute of Land Policy podcast “Land Matters”
August 30, 2019—Theresa Williamson discussed the role of informal settlements in cities and the potential of Favela CLTs in the episode “Solutions in Slums” with Enrique Silva, director of International and Institute-Wide Initiatives for the Institute, and Anthony Flint, presenter of the podcast. Listen here:
Taster presentation on the Rio de Janeiro CLT process at University of Pennsylvania
April 24, 2019—Perry World House conference ‘Why Cities? Informality as a Way of Life: Challenges to Sustainable Urban Development.’