Economic resiliency and wealth in Black communities need to come from exchanges of goods and services outside of traditional financial structures, including cooperatives, micro lending, and neighborhood-focused money lending, credit unions and community benefits agreements.

Ideally, money comes from and circulates through the community, creating a self-sustained and closed-loop financial system that prioritizes local markets.

ACTIONS AND TARGETS USING LEED-ND METRICS

• Everyone within a sustainable square mile should have access to a job.

• A funding framework should ensure equitable distribution of available funds for projects to encourage sustainable practices to reduce the cost of living.

• New housing requirements should include incentives for renters, landlords and owners to invest in new development to build wealth and ownership.

• Tools to mitigate displacement should include measures to preserve existing housing, reduce cost of housing production, and leverage market rates.

• At least 20% of community members should be employed within the community.

• Multilingual education programs should be created to inform residents about how to enroll in health insurance, home/rental insurance, early childhood education, adult and continuing education, and low-income assistance programs.

• There should be support for programs that lower the price of providing basic needs for low-income households.

• There should be support for local hiring for development projects, living wages based on the MIT living wage calculator, and community workers’ benefits agreements.

Blacks in Green:

• https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/sustainable-square-mile-handbook.pdf

• https://www.blacksingreen.org/about-us

Giving Tech Labs Team - Giving.Tech