Caño Martín Peña Affordable Housing Advisory Services
Location
Client
Caño Martín Peña Community Land Trust
Services
- Affordable Housing Policy & Development
- Governance & Stewardship
Year
Through a HUD Section 4, Capacity Building for Community Development and Affordable Housing, grant administered through Enterprise, JLP+D collaborated with local architecture firm Marvel to work with Fideicomiso de la Tierra del Caño Martín Peña. The Land Trust is helping transform an urban settlement around a polluted and flood-prone river channel into a sustainable community in the heart of San Juan. In compliance with the Department of HUD and the 489 Act, the Trust is helping to provide affordable and resilient housing units to the members of the community who must relocate as part of this community-led effort. The land trust protects eight vulnerable communities surrounding the Martín Peña canal, an ecologically important waterway for which the federal government announced will allocate $163 million to help restore the Caño Martín Peña in Puerto Rico.
The team created both single and multifamily development plans for 55 parcels of land owned by the land trust. Synthesizing available data, existing architectural designs, community preferences, flood vulnerability, and access to transportation, public facilities and commercial districts, JLP+D delivered a nimble system to determine feasibility for development. This tool also is intended to aid the land trust and its partners in prioritizing development for residential and mixed-use development for the parcels identified. Additionally, this system can be recycled by the land trust staff and used to better understand other development projects.
In addition to technical assistance for housing development, JLP+D completed an organizational capacity audit for the land trust, identifying strengths of the existing structure, staffing, and outcomes and also areas in need of improvement to increase efficiency and capacity in the future. This process culminated in three training workshops for land trust staff and partners to facilitate training both in the technical tools and process of housing development, and also in organizational growth.
