DUDLEY NEIGHBORS INCORPORATED

Description

In the late 1980's, through a comprehensive organizing and planning initiative, Dudley residents were able to establish community control over a critical mass of the 1,300 parcels of abandoned land that had come to characterize the neighborhood. As part of this effort, the City of Boston adopted the community’s comprehensive development plan and granted the power of eminent domain over much of the privately-owned vacant land in the 62 acre area known as the "Dudley Triangle." The DNI Community Land Trust was created to take ownership of that land and realize a vision of development without displacement.

Today, more than 30 acres of formerly vacant, blighted land in the Dudley Triangle are now under neighborhood control through Dudley Neighbors Inc. This land has been transformed into 226 new affordable homes, a 10,000 square foot community greenhouse, urban farm, a playground, gardens, and other amenities of a thriving urban village. Dudley Neighbors Inc. is recognized as one of the nation's most successful urban community land trusts and serves as a model for other communities organizing to promote development without displacement and long-term control of the land.