Altadena Library to Host Second Land Trust Forum for Community Development

The Altadena Library will host “The Value of the Land Part 2” on Tuesday, April 29 from 5:30-8 p.m., continuing a community conversation about land trusts with practitioners from across Los Angeles.

The event aims to explore the complex journey of acquiring land for community ownership as part of the “Let’s Talk, Let’s Listen” Community Series organized by local organizations including Pasadenans Organizing for Progress, Pasadena Community Job Center, and Clergy Community Coalition.

“The goal of this community land trust is really to acquire and preserve some of the affordability,” said Paul Yelder, a panelist and resident of Crenshaw District and former executive director of Boston’s Dudley Neighbors Incorporated, when speaking about community land trusts in a 2022 article about housing justice in Los Angeles.

The panel will feature four experts actively involved in community land trust work: Oscar Monge (Interim Executive Director of T.R.U.S.T. South LA), Paul Yelder (Interim Executive Director, Liberty Community Land Trust), Matthew Vu (Board President of Beverly Vermont Community Land Trust), and Adé E. Neff, M.A. (founder of Ride On! Bike Shop Co-Op). Maryam Hosseinzadeh, founder of Within For Of, will serve as co-moderator for the discussion.

This event builds upon the inaugural forum in the series, also titled “The Value of the Land,” which was held on March 18, 2025, at Morning Star Baptist Church in Pasadena. That first meeting specifically addressed the “pros, cons and misinformation” surrounding land trusts as a strategy for community development.

Community land trusts have gained attention as “one promising strategy for providing land uses undersupplied by our market economy, including affordable housing and the preservation of open space,” according to the UCLA Lewis Center. The timing is particularly relevant as land values in Altadena continue to rise, with properties like a 0.43 acre lot at 82 W Palm St recently listed for $1,168,000.

“Our goal is to build what will be the largest community land trust in America. [We have] to take as much land off of the speculative real estate market, so that people in Black communities can be free from displacement, [and] communities and commercial spaces can be free to grow and thrive,” said Goodmon, a Community Land Trust advocate speaking about Downtown Crenshaw’s vision despite setbacks in land acquisition.

The panelists bring extensive experience in community land acquisition and management. Oscar Monge has been serving as Interim Executive Director of T.R.U.S.T. South LA since at least April 2024, advancing the organization’s mission to reclaim land and housing from the speculative market for permanent affordable housing in South LA. He has also served as Board President of the California Community Land Trust Network since 2021, playing a pivotal role in advancing the Community Land Trust movement statewide.

Matthew Vu is affiliated with T.R.U.S.T. South LA and serves as Board President of Beverly Vermont Community Land Trust (BVCLT), one of the largest CLTs in Los Angeles. BVCLT currently manages 49 affordable units across three buildings, a community garden, and a recently acquired commercial property. The organization has been utilizing County funding for acquiring multifamily buildings in which tenants were facing eviction, helping them form housing cooperatives.

Another panelist, Adé E. Neff, founded Ride On! Bike Shop & Co-Op in 2014, creating a full-service, worker-owned cooperative based in Leimert Park, LA that serves as a community cornerstone in South Los Angeles.

The event description notes that attendees will “hear how they got there, lessons learned, setbacks, successes, and community buy in” from panelists who have navigated the challenges of community land trust development. This knowledge is particularly relevant for Altadena, which the event flyer notes is “in early stages in Altadena rebuilding.”

Recent developments demonstrate the growing interest in land trusts locally. In March 2025, Pasadena-based Greenline Housing Foundation acquired its first lot in Altadena as part of an emergency land-banking initiative following the Eaton Fire, planning to work with the community to determine the best use of the property.

Pasadenans Organizing for Progress, one of the event sponsors, is a multi-issue community organization founded in 2016 whose mission is to make Pasadena a more just, fair, and inclusive city. Another sponsor, Clergy Community Coalition, is a network of faith, civic, and nonprofit leaders founded in 2005 that is committed to ensuring Greater Pasadena is a just community where all people can flourish.

The Altadena Library, located at 600 E. Mariposa Street, will host the event. The library is open Monday and Tuesday from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Wednesday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.