Josh McLinden: UEP Thesis Award Winner, 2023
Building Power: Tenant Organizing, Community Land Trusts, and the Right to the City: A Study of Housing Justice in Boston
This thesis examines how residents facing eviction in a Boston neighborhood organized into a tenant association to not only win the right to stay in their homes but also move the property into permanently affordable community control. This thesis makes an excellent contribution to the field of housing justice. The qualitative methods used in the thesis (stakeholder interviews and participant observation) are well-suited to the research objectives and help demonstrate how housing justice can be achieved through an institutionalized Community Land Trust, an activist “right to the city” organization, and tenants associations. The writing is extremely engaging, weaving in the compelling stories and experiences of directly impacted residents. Josh shows how tenant organizing and affordable housing development can work together to challenge the neoliberal system of housing and create alternative models of community control and democratic participation. This thesis is a great example of a student combining their passion and experience with skillsets developed as part of their UEP degree program, offering valuable lessons for practical visionaries who are interested in housing justice and other avenues of affecting change.
Abstract














