Community-Based Development (CBD) is a place-based, people-focused model that empowers residents of historically disinvested communities to lead the revitalization of their neighborhoods. It focuses on stabilizing and investing in historically marginalized neighborhoods by organizing residents, engaging with local businesses, and often partnering with local government and philanthropy to create pathways for sustainable economic, housing, cultural, and social development.
Through Community Development Corporations (CDCs), Community Land Trusts (CLTs), and other nonprofit organizations, these entities engage in meaningful community participation. They ensure local residents have representation on boards, leadership opportunities, and a voice in planning and implementation, while advancing community ownership opportunities.
CBD leverages strong local ties and the lived experiences of residents to organize the community, guiding where and how investments are made. It emphasizes sustainable, community-controlled solutions that advance housing justice and build long-term prosperity. CBD encompasses more than just building homes; a holistic approach to addressing community needs can create thriving, resilient neighborhoods where long-term residents have a stake in their future.
Why Community-Based Development Matters for Housing Justice
Housing justice can be defined as addressing the harms of past discrimination and ensuring that everyone has access to safe, stable, and affordable housing, free from the threat of housing instability caused by economic or social hardships. CBD can be a powerful model to advance this vision. In many communities, people of color and working families earning less than living wages are disproportionately impacted by rising housing costs, displacement pressures, and a lack of affordable options.
The top-down approach of traditional market-driven development may overlook these trends, leading to gentrification and community erosion. CBD centers the leadership of impacted residents, ensuring that development in the neighborhood responds to community needs rather than displacing them. It also protects cultural and social ties that market forces often ignore.
There is no single national definition for CBDs, but they are generally self-identifying nonprofit groups focused on revitalizing neighborhoods through affordable housing development, small business support, job training, and culturally competent services. Recent work by a California Community-Based Development Collective defines a Community-Based Development Organization as a nonprofit with a proven, long-term presence in a defined low- or moderate-income community. These organizations demonstrate deep local ties through affordable housing development or community benefit programs, have experience delivering culturally competent services to very low- and lower-income households, and ensure that leadership and staff reflect the communities they serve.
Some established CDCs trace their origins to grassroots efforts during the civil rights movement, when residents organized to address economic disinvestment and housing discrimination. Over time, many CDCs have evolved from informal, volunteer-led initiatives into highly structured nonprofit organizations that develop and preserve affordable housing in their communities.
Becoming an Affordable Housing Developer
Becoming a CBD requires navigating the technical, jargon-heavy world of housing development while maintaining strong community relationships. Unlike traditional developers, CBDs prioritize community control and self-determination, ensuring that residents have a voice in the types of homes and services created. Although smaller developments can be more impactful and flexible in serving local needs, they face financial and logistical challenges as complex as those of larger developments.
Additionally, the larger the development, the more it may resemble “cookie-cutter” housing models, designed for efficiency rather than for the community’s specific needs. The financial incentives built into the system often push traditional non-profit affordable developers toward larger developments, even when smaller, more tailored developments might better serve the community’s needs.
For CBDs, building smaller-scale, culturally relevant developments is often a direct response to community organizing and local priorities. Partnering with established affordable housing developers can be a good starting point, provided the CBD receives a portion of the developer’s fee (the compensation paid to affordable housing developers for their time, expertise, and risk) to ensure alignment with community goals.
Some states, such as Massachusetts and South Carolina, have adopted formal definitions to help target grant and tax credit funding. However, CBDs remain self-defined in California and vary widely in size, structure, and focus.
The Role of CDCs Beyond Housing
CDCs generally anchor broad efforts to address comprehensive community needs. They provide trusted local leadership, organize residents in disinvested neighborhoods, and serve as networks to support neighborhoods during social, climate, and economic uncertainty. Their relationships with local stakeholders make community investments more effective.
Small CDCs can also act as “docking stations” for larger initiatives. National and regional programs often struggle when imposed without local guidance. CDCs allow public investment to be deployed effectively by ensuring it aligns with community needs.
For instance, the Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA), a San Francisco-based CDC, has led the Mission Promise Neighborhood (MPN) since 2012. Funded initially by a $30 million federal grant, MPN is a cradle-to-career initiative modeled after the Harlem Children’s Zone, aimed at improving educational and economic outcomes for families in the Mission District. Even after the grant ended, MEDA sustained the MPN through city, state, and philanthropic funding, anchoring long-term, community-driven transformation. This model has produced real results: Latino high school graduation rates rose from 63% to 88%, and preschool enrollment among Latino 4-year-olds reached 80%. MEDA’s leadership shows how small CDCs can translate large-scale investments into lasting, locally rooted impact.
Alongside education, MEDA has preserved affordable housing through San Francisco’s Small Sites Program, which allows nonprofits to purchase and rehabilitate multi-unit buildings to prevent tenant displacement. By 2024, MEDA acquired over 30 properties with more than 250 residential units and several commercial spaces, primarily in the Mission District. By converting these into permanently affordable housing, MEDA helps maintain the community’s cultural and economic fabric.
Santa Clara County is Ready for Community-Based Development
Santa Clara County is experiencing growing momentum for community-led development, driven by the work of the South Bay Community Land Trust (SBCLT), the Si Se Puede Collective’s Mayfair Neighborhood Trust, the Mountain View Community Land Trust, and a broad coalition of local partners committed to advancing community control of land and housing.
City of San José Measure E Funds Back SBCLT’s Effort to Preserve Affordable Housing
SBCLT emerged from grassroots tenant organizing following Google’s 2017 announcement of its new tech campus near Diridon Station in San Jose. Recognizing that unchecked development would deepen the displacement of low-income, working-class, and unhoused residents, organizers founded SBCLT in 2019 with a mission to decommodify housing and place land into permanent community stewardship.
In February 2023, SBCLT achieved a major milestone with the acquisition of its first property: a historic 1929 four-plex on Reed Street in Downtown San José. The building is home to 10 low-income residents of color, many of whom have experienced homelessness. Situated in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, the Reed Street property represents a critical intervention to preserve affordable housing amid rising displacement pressures. The acquisition was made possible through grassroots fundraising, a loan from the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), and broad community support.
Following this success, SBCLT expanded its impact with the acquisition of the Virginia Apartments, an 18-unit rent-controlled building in East San José. The apartments, home to working-class, immigrant Latinx families, were under threat of speculative purchase. With advisory support from MidPen Housing Corporation and $5 million in Measure E funds from the San José City Council, SBCLT, and the residents successfully preserved the property, safeguarding long-term affordability and maintaining a vital multigenerational community.
City of Mountain View Community Ownership Action Plan (COAP)
Local jurisdictions are playing a pivotal role in supporting these emerging community-based developments in Santa Clara County. Along with San José’s funding commitment to SBCLT, Mountain View is advancing its Housing Element Program to adopt a Community Ownership Action Plan (COAP). It is an innovative policy framework designed to help community-based developers purchase and preserve affordable apartments for long-term community control. Expected to be adopted by the City Council by the end of Fall 2025, COAP couples flexible public financing and technical assistance grants with clear policy direction to move land and housing out of the speculative market and embed long-term community stewardship into local housing strategies. (SV@Home served on the advisory committee that helped shape the plan.)
Across Santa Clara County, more stakeholders are rallying behind community-based development as a powerful strategy to protect affordability, prevent displacement, and create more equitable futures.
SV@Home’s Work to Advance Community-Based Development
SV@Home launched the Community Roots Collaborative in 2024. The Collaborative aims to seed and grow local CDCs by offering a year-long program for partners to deepen their knowledge of affordable housing and community development. Through a mix of expert speakers, facilitated discussions among emerging leaders, one-on-one consultation, and immersive tours of established CDCs across the Bay Area, the Collaborative provides exposure, education, and tools to nurture a new generation of community-driven organizations.
Public agencies, funders, and investors committed to housing justice must prioritize funding to establish and support mission-driven CDCs. Without them, efforts to change larger systems risk losing their connection to the very communities they are meant to benefit.
Additional Resources
Living into the Future: Scaling Community-Owned Housing in California
SV@Home compilation of resource list for Community Roots Collaborative
