But pretty soon it is set to become the East Brooklyn Liberation Center, a new multipurpose community center that will serve as an anchor for local organizations like Preserving East New York and the East Brooklyn Archives, and a business hub for local businesses<\/a> and worker co-ops.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis space means everything, especially to me because I\u2019m always telling people about ownership,\u201d Ack, special projects coordinator at the East New York Community Land Trust, told The City Reporter.<\/p>\n In addition to the communal space, the center will double as the main office of the land trust, a membership-based grassroots group organizing for community ownership of housing and removing neighborhood land from the private market.\u00a0<\/p>\n The nonprofit\u2019s purchase of the $2.3 million building is historic, the first time that a New York City community land trust has acquired commercial property off the open market, rather than from the government or a non-profit.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ack, who has lived in East New York for nearly 30 years, said the group\u2019s recent purchase speaks to its larger mission of ensuring residents have a stake in their neighborhood.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt helps us build our organization,\u201d Ack added. \u201cWe want the community to be able to purchase land. Everywhere you look, it\u2019s a high-rise and more high-rises. It\u2019s liberating the land in East New York, returning it back into the hands of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n MORE: Inside NYC\u2019s K-Shaped Economy: A Few Do Well, Most Do Not<\/a><\/p>\n The majority of residents in East New York are Black or Hispanic, according to data from the NYU Furman Center<\/a>, making up 81% of the neighborhood\u2019s population. The neighborhood\u2019s population has grown 33% over the last 25 years, to more than 196,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n While the neighborhood is growing overall, more and more Black residents are leaving, with at least a 10% decline since 2010.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n That drop echoes citywide declines in Black residents: 288,564 Black New Yorkers left the city from 2000 to 2024, according to census data<\/a>.<\/p>\n What Is a Community Land Trust?\u00a0<\/p>\n The first community land trust was founded in 1969 in Albany, Georgia, to support Black farmers who were being pushed off their land at the height of the Civil Rights Movement.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now there are more than 200 community land trusts across the U.S., 20 of them in NYC. The city defines community land trusts<\/a> as nonprofit organizations that own and steward land to provide affordable housing and other public benefits into perpetuity.\u00a0<\/p>\n They also work with the city\u2019s Department of Housing Preservation & Development to \u201cenforce affordability requirements, ensure fairness, and empower residents.\u201d<\/p>\n In short, the trusts work to bring land into community ownership, making sure it\u2019s developed and used in a way to benefit the people who live there, according to Deyanira Del Rio, executive director of the New Economy Project.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a really flexible model, but the point is really about neighborhood self-determination,\u201d Del Rio said. \u201cIt\u2019s about permanent affordability and it\u2019s about treating land and housing as things that should be for the common good and not for extractive profit<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The East New York trust is five years old and has already made an impact. In 2024, the group was the first community land trust in NYC to buy a multi-family apartment building from a private landlord.<\/p>\n The rent-stabilized 21-unit building on Arlington Avenue in Cypress Hills is still being converted to a democratically shared co-op, according to East New York CLT president Boris Santos. \u201cThe nonprofit would have the title to the land, [and] lease it out to the tenants, who will also be shareholders of the property.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Amid rising rents<\/a> and declining affordability, Santos said the group\u2019s commercial and residential buys are a sign of hope.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you think about the history of organizing and advocacy, especially in the U.S. and when it comes to a predominantly Black and brown community, and you have an affordability crisis that\u2019s being highlighted now, so \u2014 more than ever \u2014 we are that hope,\u201d Santos said.\u00a0<\/p>\n East New York and Cypress Hills rank among the neighborhoods where residents have the greatest danger of dislocation, according to the city\u2019s displacement risk map<\/a>, which was last updated in July 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n MORE: Wait, How Much? Manhattan and Brooklyn Rents Hit Record Highs<\/a><\/p>\n As a resident and organizer, Santos said he recognized a shift in the community following passage of former Mayor Bill de Blasio\u2019s 2016 East New York Rezoning Project, which spurred the building of 6,500 housing units and high-rise buildings along Atlantic Avenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n But he said more needs to be done, which is why the East New York land trust is pushing to close the gap.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAll mayors have an ambitious \u2018I want to create housing under a housing crisis,\u2019 but I don\u2019t believe in creating housing. I believe in creating homes,\u201d Santos said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a difference, because housing is just shelter,\u201d he said. \u201cA home is safety. There\u2019s also a dearth of spaces for communal gatherings, and I think that\u2019s where the city fails.\u201d<\/p>\n Help From Their Friends\u00a0<\/p>\n To purchase the plot, the East New York land trust initially put down $230,000 as a deposit, according to organizers.\u00a0<\/p>\n The rest of the money was raised through multiple revenue streams, including donations, elected officials like state Sen. Julia Salazar, who committed $1 million, and working with groups like Resource Generation<\/a>, a nonprofit group of young people with access to wealth that supports social causes. Organizers said Resource Generation helped them raise around $250,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n Del Rio said The New Economy Project also co-underwrote a $650,000 acquisition loan with The Working World<\/a>, a nonprofit that provides loans to worker co-ops.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe were able to meet the fast timeline that the CLT needed with the seller,\u201d Del Rio said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s growing interest in this work, and there\u2019s a lot of support that the CLT movement has generated among individuals that want to support these kinds of purchases, like foundations which have program-related and mission-related investing,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n MORE: Mamdani Administration Says NYC Needs 700,000 New Apartments<\/a><\/p>\n In search of an easier pathway for community land trusts to buy properties, organizers are pushing for the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act<\/a>, which would give the trusts and nonprofits first dibs on distressed multifamily properties \u2014 buildings up for foreclosure due to unpaid fines or an excessive number of violations \u2014 when they are put up for sale.\u00a0<\/p>\n East New York has at least 46 properties, holding 1,152 apartments, that would qualify, according to an analysis by The City Reporter, with most located in the New Lots section.<\/p>\n The bill is one of two pieces of legislation the Mamdani administration supports in its housing plan<\/a>, and it is on track to be calendared in September, according to City Councilmember Sandy Nurse, who represents Bushwick, Brownsville, Cypress Hills, and East New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n The bill passed in the City Council<\/a> last year, but Mayor Eric Adams<\/a> vetoed it in his last few weeks in office. Nurse, the bill\u2019s author, moved to revive it earlier this year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe were only short a single vote\u201d to override the veto, \u201cso it\u2019s not like it wasn\u2019t good, but we\u2019ve used the time to hone in on it even more just to make sure everything is crystal clear given the amount of opposition that will come to it, mainly because there are a lot of people who don\u2019t want any intervention in the market,\u201d Nurse told the City Reporter.\u00a0<\/p>\n She also said her office is working with the city\u2019s Housing and Preservation Department to make sure \u201call i\u2019s are dotted, and t\u2019s are crossed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Similar laws have been implemented in San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., according to Policy Link<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tough Economics<\/p>\n![\"Nanthale](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/080126_east_ny_community_trust_event.jpg\")
Nanthale Collins speaks at an event for the East New York Community Land Trust, Aug. 1, 2026. Credit: Kennedy Sessions\/The City Reporter<\/p>\n![\"East](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/080126_east_ny_community_trust_event-4.jpg\")
East New York Community Land Trust President Boris Santos shows off the nonprofit\u2019s merchandise during an event at the East Brooklyn Liberation Center, Aug. 1, 2026. Credit: Kennedy Sessions\/The City Reporter<\/p>\n
![\"East](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/080126_east_ny_land_trust.jpg\")
East New York Community Land Trust special projects coordinator Debra Ack stands next to the nonprofit\u2019s new headquarters in Brooklyn, Aug. 1, 2026. Credit: Kennedy Sessions\/The City Reporter<\/p>\n