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Community WealthBuilders and neighbors urge council to study land bank, public bank and cooperative conversions
Summary
Multiple community witnesses asked the committee to fund studies, appoint at least one DEMPd staffer, and create a technical-assistance grant to advance land-bank and public-bank institutions and to support cooperative conversions that keep local businesses and wealth in D.C.
Community advocates told the committee the District should move beyond one-off incentives and begin building locally rooted financial infrastructure: a land bank, a public bank, and supports for worker-owned cooperative conversions.
"We really think D.C. needs to take this seriously," said a witness representing D.C. Community WealthBuilders, urging the committee to budget for one full-time staff person at DEMPd to coordinate studies and phase plans. Witnesses argued that public banks (citing the North Dakota model) and land banks would allow the city to re-purpose public assets and tax liens into locally directed financing for grocery stores, affordable housing and small-business succession. Charnell Chaney, a Ward 8 volunteer converting her business to a worker cooperative, asked for a technical assistance grant for cooperative conversions and tax incentives to make conversions feasible for small owners.
Councilmembers asked for specifics: committee members requested follow-up materials on the prior studies cited by witnesses, estimates of staff-costs to stand up a land-bank initiative and suggested DEMPd meet with community groups to scope a one-FTE request. Witnesses offered examples of displacement and historical land loss, and proposed pilot technical assistance funding for cooperative conversions and targeted lease-incentive or tax supports for small legacy businesses.
