City seeks ideas on shared ownership of businesses, housing, and land
As it looks to spur economic recovery in the wake of the pandemic, New York City is searching for solutions that will address long-term economic disparities. The Brooklyn Reader reports, the City has put out a Request for Information on the Issue of Shared Equity, seeking ideas about how low-income households and households of color could build wealth through collective ownership.
Whether you have ideas on how to accelerate the growth of employee ownership, community land trusts, or housing cooperatives, the City would like to hear from you.
Three departments issued the RFI: Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP). They are seeking ideas that could apply to shared ownership of housing, businesses and more. Whether you have ideas on how to accelerate the growth of employee ownership, community land trusts, or housing cooperatives, the City would like to hear from you.
“Through this Request for Information about shared equity strategies,” said Deputy Mayor J. Philip Thompson, “we hope to identify new solutions from community experts that can help us catalyze an equitable recovery.”
Over the last five years, New York City has been investing in a program to launch more worker cooperatives. It increased its investment in worker ownership with the launch of Employee Ownership NYC at the end of 2020.
The City is encouraging community-based, nonprofit, and grassroots organizations; municipalities; affordable housing developers; banks, lenders, and CDFIs; and philanthropic and research institutions to share their expertise. The departments want to learn about appropriate structures, benefits and challenges of different models of shared ownership, operations and financing.
The Shared Equity RFI is online; ideas must be submitted by the June 9 deadline.
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