MCLT First Annual Meeting

Help create the Machigonne Community Land Trust and build affordable ownership housing in Portland.

May 10, 5-8pm
East End Community School
195 North Street, Portland, ME 04101
Free Food and Childcare

The broader Portland community is invited to the first annual meeting of the Machigonne Community Land Trust.  A small group of people have been meeting and organizing for the past year and on May 10th, they will share their work with a wider audience and invite people to be a part of creating a community land trust in Portland.

What is a Community Land Trust (CLT)?  CLTs purchase land or receive donations of land that is then held permanently for affordable housing, community gardens, community businesses and community spaces.  In Portland, the Machigonne CLT wants to focus on renovating buildings for affordable ownership through cooperative housing or single family homes and making land available for community gardens.

What is Machigonne?  Machigonne is the original Abenaki name for the area that is now Portland.  Through their work, Machigonne CLT wants to honor the original residents of this land who were forcibly removed from their traditional territory.

Why do we need a CLT? Housing and land in Portland is becoming inaccessible for many workers as developers build high-end condos, skyrise market rate buildings and hotels.  Renters are finding it challenging to find affordable buildings to purchase and make long-term homes.  CLTs take land out of the speculative commodity market and preserve it for the community for long-term affordability.

Community Land Trusts are democratically controlled organizations and the members and resident members  can run for the board, vote to elect the leadership, and guide the organization.  Machigonne CLT is actively recruiting new members and board members to lead this organization forward, to grow the CLT and purchase its first location.