Financing the Commons: Capital Pathways for Community-Owned Real Estate

Right to the City (RTTC) is a national alliance of community-based racial, economic, gender, and environmental justice organizations working to advance housing affordability and community ownership. In 2023, RTTC launched the Integrated Capital Loan Fund (ICLF) to provide non-extractive capital for projects that move land and housing out of the speculative market and into permanent community control. Since raising additional investment capital for the ICLF has been challenging for RTTC, they engaged a Capstone team from NYU Wagner to assess the funder landscape and develop strategies for attracting low-cost, movement-aligned funding. For this project, the team conducted a literature review, landscape analysis, and interviews with funders, capital intermediaries, and field-building organizations, as well as research on relevant financial instruments and fund legal structures. Drawing on these findings, the team developed four recommendations for the ICLF: strengthen the fund’s narrative and diligence readiness, evaluate alternative structures for the fund, build technical assistance capacity through strategic partnerships, and dedicate a future capital raise to a select geographic region.