Natalia Boldt
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Rachel Meeker
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Brightmoor Artisans Collective / NonUM
Program:
Authors: Natalia Boldt, Rachel Meeker
Session: Session 7: 4:40 pm – 5:30 pm
Poster: 86
Abstract
Brightmoor is a predominantly African American populated neighborhood, with 78% of the population below the ALICE (Asset Limited Income Constrained and Employed) threshold, which is the minimum average income that a household needs to afford housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, and a smartphone plan, plus taxes. As a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping create an equitable, sustainable and local economy based on healthy, locally grown and crafted products in Brightmoor, Brightmoor Artisans Collective (BAC) has been working to increase the rates of owner occupied homes and income. This will be done through the Brightmoor Incubator Project whose goal is to facilitate the establishment of BIPOC owned microenterprise farmsteads for commercial food production in Detroit’s Brightmoor neighborhood. This project is intended to address the neighborhood challenges of blighted properties & unauthorized dumping, food insecurity, and barriers to land acquisition and economic development in Brightmoor. The section of the project that was completed for this research project was to evaluate and compile information on land plots that BAC could acquire to create a land trust. A land trust is when a legal entity takes ownership of a property in order to manage it for the property owner, which aids in land affordability and community control. Along with this, information on the needs of Brightmoor were compiled for grant writers. This work has allowed for the next step in the process of this project to begin, the formation of a community governance committee. The purpose of the committee is to establish requirements and regulations for the project and make decisions that represent the best interests of the community in partnership with BAC.
