United Properties Tenant Association & City Life Vida Urbana Movie Night!
Free this Saturday, July 12th? Join UPTA and CLVU for a documentary on community land trusts!
What does community ownership look like in housing?
Hard to imagine? Then come join us for a movie night to learn more about the movement for community ownership in the Boston area 🍿🎥! The United Properties Tenant Association (UPTA) is partnering with the Malden Community Land Trust to screen the documentary Gaining Ground: Building Community on Dudley Street — e’ll see how the community land trust movement started in the Boston area so we can bring it into Malden! Attendance is completely free! The film screening will be this Saturday July 12th at 5PM at The First Parish Church in Malden (2 Elm St, Malden MA).
The documentary we will screen follows the story of grassroots organizing efforts of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) in Boston. DSNI has existed for over 35 years and was created by residents who sought to reclaim their neighborhood, which had been ravaged by disinvestment, arson fires and dumping. Since then, DSNI has been able to rebuild Dudley with quality affordable houses, parks, playgrounds, gardens, community facilities, and new businesses, upholding a higher quality of life for residents. Homes in the DSNI community land trust are permanently affordable for tenants and homeowners and a reality we want to see across Massachusetts. DSNI believes in developing neighborhoods without displacement, amplifying youth voices and empowering resident voices. DSNI gives their community leaders a voice and the ability to achieve collective goals; for themselves as well as their neighborhood. For more information on DSNI: https://www.dsni.org/about-us
Our panel will feature local leaders who will share about their organizing and their understanding of how social housing can transform how we think about housing. At CLVU, we dream of social housing like community land trusts and beyond that is socially owned by the public sector and/or under democratic community control. We dream of social housing that is permanently affordable for the entire lives of the current residents and for future generations. We dream of social housing that is permanently decommodified and protected from the private market and for profit investors. We are organizing for a social housing that is socially financed, produced, and maintained and built by the public with a mission driven by non profit developers, construction companies, and that employs union labor and worker cooperatives. We organize social housing that is under democratic control where residents have governing power through direct role in management and decision making of their housing community and are accountable to the public. This is a vision that aligns with our national vision for social housing with the Right to the City National Alliance.
The United Properties Tenant Association
Here’s a little background on the United Properties Tenant Association who are co-hosting the film screening: UPTA is a group of tenants from buildings owned by United Properties in Malden who are organizing to fight for equitable rent, better living conditions, and stable housing. United Properties is an ubiquitous corporate landlord that owns many properties in several working class communities in Greater Boston. Their association reinforces that no one should have to face the housing crisis alone, aiming to negotiate for long term agreements with United Properties for predictable and stabilized rent increases. CLVU supported the UPTA in an organizing fight against United Properties in 2022. Some buildings won a collective bargaining agreement 3% maximum rent increase per year, but the fight continues as these agreements expire! To learn more, contact malden.tenantassociation@gmail.com.
See you on Saturday!
In the documentary we’ll watch community leaders work to prevent foreclosures and bring jobs and opportunities for young people to one of Boston's most diverse and economically challenged neighborhoods 🎬. Come join us to support the organizing work of the United Properties TA, and learn about the inspiring history behind affordable housing solutions to combat speculative corporate landlord practices🏠 !