Source: NPR —
Low income people are often shut out the main way wealth is built in the U.S.: Real estate. But a new movement is creating ways for poorer people to invest in their own communities.
When you look at, say, a local shopping mall, you don’t usually ask who owns that building. But someone does – usually, developers and investors. But there’s a new movement to put a share of these buildings in the hands of people in the neighborhood. From Portland, Ore., Deena Prichep reports.
DEENA PRICHEP, BYLINE: In a lot of ways, Plaza 122 looks like your typical midcentury suburban strip mall. There are a few dozen storefronts, a taxi company, hair salon, some nonprofits, including the Ethiopian and Eritrean Cultural Resources Center.
YONAS KASSIE: This is our finance department, you know?
PRICHEP: Yonas Kassie is the director.
KASSIE: This is my office. Yeah, it’s open.
PRICHEP: But Kassie doesn’t just rent this office. He owns it – at least, a share of it – through the Community Investment Trust, or CIT.
KASSIE: This really gives us opportunity to feel a sense of community. We are also one of the investors – you know, even small, big. It doesn’t matter.
PRICHEP: Participants pay from 10 to $100 each month for a share in the building. They get dividends as the value goes up and can cash out whenever they want.
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