Starting up! Taking roll now

@ikachoris now starting to present about why the @ChiTrust is interested in closing the racial and ethnic wealth gap

She says they are focused on growing household wealth + catalyzing neighborhood investment + building collective power

For context, from the commission’s Facebook page, the meeting today is:

“to hear testimony from Ianna Kachoris, Senior Director, Policy and Advocacy at The Chicago Community Trust and Ja’Net Defell who leads the Trust’s Community Desk Chicago.”

“They will propose ways in which Cook County might facilitate community ownership opportunities to build family wealth within the County’s communities.”

@ikachoris says they’ve been especially focused on achieving “an equitable recovery” as federal dollars flow in

Here is an overview of their agenda: https://t.co/yh5UhqKkNJ

@ikachoris hands it off to Ja’net Defell, Director for Community Desk Chicago

“you’re really seeing a spike across the country” where communities are taking revitalization into their own hands bc “they’re seeing that existing systems have failed them” and taking a grassroots approach, says Defell

Community wealth building is broad, she says. They can range for worker coops (there’s a ton in Chicago), whereas recently it’s pivoted to direct ownership of properties

They did an 8 month study of CIVs, Community Investment Vehicles. Here’s the definition provided: https://t.co/oQwlUEEhLj

CIVs typically have one of 2 goals:
- Community stabilization (no money provided)
- Individual wealth building (actually get paid dividends)

CIVs have 5 main elements:
1. purpose + process
2. funding + investments
3. legal + governance
4. assets + operations
5. external stakeholders

For purpose + process, it’s important to “understand where the residents come into play”

For funding + investments, it’s important to know the capital stack. For legal + governance, you should understand compliance, governance, ownership type, and legal structure (CIVs could be nonprofits, L3Cs, etc)

For assets + operations, you should understand property/project types, end user, and operations & management. In many of these cases, Defell says they’re buying properties together

Finally, external stakeholders. She’d highlights the role of municipal agencies, or the actions of government bodies (e.g. land bank, property tax assessor). Philanthropy and other policy actors (elected officials, nonprofits, NGOs) also play a role

Commercial loans are often 5-7 years, Defell says, and you often have to refinance them. Community models offer trainings with an associated cost, so having long-term favorable debt financing helps this to work

Here’s a visual Defell is showing about how everything comes together in a CIV: https://t.co/gmPNRDVc5F

For example, she says if there’s $10,000 mil in a CIV and 500 community members, they could:
1) buy into capital
2) take a portion of capital and use it with private developers
3) use other creative models (that lend to each other)

*this keeps money in the community and creates a circular economy

When assessing community readiness, these are things to consider: https://t.co/FPHuMNZ3O5

Moving to questions now.

Ana Guarjardo with Centro de Trabajadores Unidos asks with the worker coop model, what role does the county play?

Ja’Net Defell explains the diff. between worker coops and CIVs: worker coops mean investing in a business, for example you could be in a rental space. Vs. CIVs mean investing in real estate, not necessarily a business

Guajardo follows up. “Is there a particular entity that’s incubating these CIVS?”

Defell says there’s no incubator in Chicago, but businesses can help build it out. Example: Portland Community Investment Trust. “When you build out the model, you create the governance structure,” she says

CIVs are not worker coops, Defell clarifies. It’s not investing directly in a business, it’s investing in real estate

All of them sit under the community wealth building umbrella, Defell explains

Commissioner @themorganmalone asks for examples of where this has already been done in Chicago. “Have you seen this work with a large scale GP for a district?”

Defell says she is not aware of a model in Chicago where there has been a CIV where there is open investment across the community. Instead, they’ve seen developers using crowdfunding platforms to raise capital for a project.

If communities are ready in a CIV structure, Defell says, they’re more able to negotiate

@themorganmalone again, asking about bond financing (says city has many, which has a direct impact on property taxes). “What kinds of bond financing are you seeing?” she asks

Defell responds that they need to lean on bond strategies that allow for more flexible capital. They haven’t yet had models that engaged municipalities. Most agencies have used PRIs, program-related investments (more flexible than trad. debt financing)

Someone asks for an existing example. Defell cites E.G. Woode in Englewood: https://blockclubchicago.org/2019/01/16/can-e-g-woode-transform-englewood-south-side-entrepreneurs-unite-to-help-minority-owned-businesses-thrive-without-compromise/

Starting to see some traction in Garfield Park as well, according to Defell. Aside from worker and housing coops, this is a new space in the city and “there’s a lot of excitement and momentum,” she says

@ChiAlderwoman asks who they are working with in the city of Chicago/their relationships with local government

Defell says they have not found any experts in Chicago, need to actually implement the models. Cites the Portland model again, which did well during Covid-19 because community members had an investment

Research was initially done through the lens of philanthropy. The Trust is looking at support through a grant-making process + direct-impact investing. They see their role as advocating for these tools + helping communities build out these models, says Defell

Defell: community lead + having a physical site are both critical

@ikachoris says they’ve been working on it for a long time, while also simultaneously being in a new space

Marc Lane, vice chair of the commission asks about the community lead, and how they will scale it up. “Where do you see our highest and best use as a county?”

Defell says they have a community lead to “rally the troops” and get community buy-in

Lane asking about the county level - Defell responds that the best use of the county is to leverage your greatest asset. She says you could control tax abatements, for example

Lane asks another question. “Would you be looking at this the same way the Trust looks at other funding?” (social returns, etc.) “or are there additional guardrails the Trust would impose?”

Defell says they left the research with a very specific call to philanthropy. They are already inventorying potential projects

the Trust is not a private foundation, so they don’t have access to PRIs, Defell says. Here’s a definition of PRIs, because I didn’t know: https://learning.candid.org/resources/knowledge-base/pris/

@themorganmalone says the best way the commission may get involved could be barriers reduction/removal policy

@ikachoris affirms this. Says the American Rescue Plan dollars do provide significant flexibility to do this

Commissioner Freeman and Raymer giving an update. Thanks the Trust for their research into Community Investment Vehicles (CIVs)

Onto the report: she says the conversation has expanded to include new orgs. Now meeting the first Tuesday of every month

Lane says the January meeting was preoccupied with Mercy Corps (believe this is what was said). Out of the meeting, they’ve now developed resolutions - he’s going to read them

the takeaways:
pt. 1) approaching it cooperatively
pt. 2) greatest support lies with most consequential actors (the Trust being one)

The commissioner has seen the resolutions, Lane confirms

They do a voice vote, unanimous yes

Lane speaking about their work with the Obama Foundation as well, and expanding the talent pipeline

Devoting time to any new business

Lane clarifies that they are no longer operating under a committee system. By having ad-hoc working groups they don’t have to go through the notice requirements, which makes the process easier

Commissioner Howard Males talking about teaching tech as being part of the solution

@themorganmalone flagging an earlier comment about impact systems and being aware of barriers to engagement and scaling

Meeting adjourned at 5:57 p.m. This concludes the Cook County Commission on Social Innovation meeting. The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 7, 2022. For more meeting coverage, check out http://documenters.org.