"When that took place, the community started asking how they would guarantee this space in the city for future generations," Pacheco explains. "The development and new infrastructure were necessary, but they would provoke displacement. We decided to create the Fideicomiso."
A community land trust enables a nonprofit organization to retain ownership of a plot of land and subsequently sell or rent housing, with the goal of protecting a community and preventing displacement. The Caño Martín Peña Community Land Trust specifically ensures that residents maintain their homes in spite of this redevelopment—which, although imperative, could ultimately raise the land's value, creating the conditions for gentrification and displacing the longtime locals who'd stewarded the land at its most dangerous. With the support of the land trust, residents have the material and emotional security of intergenerational home ownership and the support of an entire organization.
We're trying to integrate different elements that make our process a more responsible one with the ecosystem, but also with the planet.
"There's a really strong sense of belonging," says Pacheco. "You're part of an organization that is working with you, by your side."
The Fideicomiso also ensures that the community redevelopment plans remain participatory. Since its inception, they've helped make homes around the channel more environmentally sustainable—with the approval of the families living in them. "We're trying to integrate different elements that make our process a more responsible one with the ecosystem, but also with the planet," acting as a liaison between the community and governmental organizations, with whom they are in "constant dialogue," says Pacheco, "we have that validation from the governmental structure that the land trust does protect you, and protects your community, your home, your future development."
The vulnerability residents face along the Caño Martín Peña canal reverberates throughout the island.
The Fideicomiso provides a model; other communities, even globally, have reached out to the Fideicomiso for support on building similar projects. "That's why we keep sharing our experience...and intentionally trying to work with other groups," Pacheco explains. "It has great potential for scaling up... Not just as a law structure and a governance structure, but also in letting people know that you can think about earth and land in a different way. It doesn't have to be a capitalist or money-led process for you to have ownership and take care of your own land."