With a mission to preserve intergenerational affordability in the neighborhood while also addressing gentrification and displacement, the Kensington Corridor Trust was launched in 2019, writes Bean Seal for Philadelphia Magazine.
Since its launch, the trust has been buying up real estate along Kensington Avenue, collects its assets, and then puts it in the hands of residents.
To date, it has acquired 31 assets worth approximately $10 million.
Given the fact that the properties are placed into a perpetual purpose trust, the neighborhood itself will permanently own them.
Adriana Abizadeh-Barbour, executive director of Kensington Corridor Trust, said the model for the trust is that “within capitalism, those who amass land amass wealth, and those who amass wealth amass power.”
The goal is to return power to a community whose members will then harness that power to do good things.
Kensington has changed dramatically from its time as a vibrant industrial neighborhood that served as the mecca of the American textile industry at the turn of the 20th century. Decades later, much of the economic opportunity and investment evaporated, leaving the neighborhood to be ravaged by drugs and homelessness.
However, its residents have maintained a level of pride and the Kensington Corridor Trust is helping lay the foundation of a blueprint other neighborhood may consider following.
Read more about the Kensington Corridor Trust in Philadelphia Magazine.
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