Valley Community Ownership
Technical Assistance Program
Available to preselected SJV Community Ownership organizations
Welcome to the Valley Community Ownership TA Program. This Program is available to preselected SJV organizations for use on community ownership projects from housing to agricultural worker co-ops and more.
Each organization participating in the Valley TA Community Ownership Program has access to technical assistance with experts in each of the TA areas: real estate, legal, business planning and organizational capacity building. We will be adding TA for agroecology, small farming side soon.
TA provided through this program will consist of a 30-60 minute introductory session (online) with an expert consultant followed by additional work that may consist of subsequent coaching meetings, or hands-on assistance from the consultant such as document review or production.
NEW! 2025
- Restarting the clock and increasing to 6-hours per organization for each program area below
- All requests are valid for a 3-month period from date of submission or until the 6-hours are expended, whichever comes first. After 3-months, requests must be re-submitted under “continuation of request” in the intake form below. CACLTN staff will follow up with organizations whose requests are lapsing.
- Friendly reminder, all TA requests must come in through the intake form and be submitted by a staff/board member or main representative of the CLT/organization if it does not have staff or board.
If you are unsure about whether your organization is a SJV TA Program participant, or would like to learn more about becoming one, please reach out to Jacky Rivera at [email protected].
REAL ESTATE TECHNHICAL ASSISTANCE
An organization may find this program helpful when…
- Developing an acquisition strategy
- Trying to determine the feasibility of a specific acquisition opportunity
- Planning or implementing rehab
- Other real estate-project related issues.
LEGAL TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
An organization may find this program helpful when…
- Incorporating and drafting bylaws
- Applying for 501c3 status
- Developing a ground lease
- Drafting a partnership agreement
BUSINESS PLANNING TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
An organization may find this program helpful when…
- Creating a working business plan
- Revising an organizational budget
- Projecting staffing and project needs
ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY BUILDING TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
An organization may find this program helpful when…
- Taking an idea for community ownership into an operational plan
- Educating staff, boards, and stakeholders about community ownership or CLTs with solid examples
- Taking your CLT into its next chapter of growth with staff and board
- Creating governance and membership structures in the organization, creating bylaws
- Strategizing with you about your vision or next steps
Meet Our Providers
Land & Liberty - Francis McIlveen
About Francis
For the past 19 years, Francis worked at the Northern California Land Trust in multiple capacities: handling various real estate transactions—from helping low-income families buy and sell CLT homes, to acquisition & development of new projects (including financing & subsidies), to handling donations of property. Francis also served as the Real Estate Broker for NCLT’s Community Realty Brokerage.
Francis oversaw almost all aspects of the acquisition and rehab process for NCLT’s anti-displacement projects, including providing technical assistance and training to housing coops and homeowner’s associations. He also provided technical assistance and coaching to emerging CLTs.
Francis also has experience handling various organizational and fiduciary responsibilities such as reviewing, negotiating and executing various contracts, financial instruments & similar obligations; participating in the annual audit process; and handling various director level organizational needs.
Areas of Assistance/Coaching:
- One on One (i.e. One on organization) assistance with your specific needs in the following areas:
- Assessing the feasibility of potential new projects
- Assembling financing & subsidy needed for new projects
- Plotting a plan—or process—for navigating acquisition & starting development/rehab
- Special considerations for co-op conversions, small site (non-LIHTC) projects, rehab of occupied properties, community driven projects
- Special considerations for CLT ownership models
CTY Housing
About CTY Housing
CTY Housing is a consulting firm based in Los Angeles that works with affordable housing developers, public agencies, and CDFIs in every stage of the development process, from concept to completion. For our CLT clients, we provide financial feasibility analysis and business planning assistance. Specifically, we have helped CLTs develop a framework for growth that includes evaluating the financial feasibility of different product types, setting development goals, identifying potential partnerships, staffing levels, and job descriptions to enable the CLTs to achieve those goals, identifying strategies for supporting organizational growth, and forecasting organizational revenue and expenses.
Areas of Assistance/Coaching:
- One on One (i.e. One on organization) assistance with your specific needs in the following areas:
- Assessing the feasibility of potential new projects
- Assembling financing & subsidy needed for new projects
- Plotting a plan—or process—for navigating acquisition & starting development/rehab
- Financial statement analysis
- Strategic planning
Christina Oatfield
About Christina
Christina is an attorney specializing in legal issues affecting cooperatives, nonprofits, and small creative businesses. For the last 5 years she has had her own law practice in which she provides general counsel to dozens of nonprofit organizations, including about five community land trusts and several other organizations engaged in stewarding real estate for charitable purposes. Many of her clients are led by and serve people of color in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Her nonprofit organization clients range from those in the early steps of formation to those with multiple decades of history and tens of millions in real estate assets.
Prior to her starting her own law practice, she worked at the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) for 8 years leading legislative advocacy campaigns to advance homemade food sales, local agriculture, worker cooperatives, affordable housing land trusts, housing cooperatives, and local investing. Christina has written and coauthored numerous legal information materials for nonprofit and business leaders, including several guides for the California Community Land Trust Network.
Kim Thompson Consulting
About Kim
Kim served as Executive Director of the Community Land Trust Association of West Marin (CLAM) for eight years, and has a twenty five year track record in community development. This includes organizational development, community-based housing and asset development, tenant and community organizing, and policy advocacy at all jurisdictional levels. She is originally from Fresno, CA and has worked on regional efforts in the San Joaquin Valley; she currently lives in Marin County where she coordinates a collaborative of community land trusts.
Kim supports start-up CLTs, new CLT programs, or community ownership efforts by:
- Strategizing with you about how to grow and implement your vision
- Leading groups through key start-up questions, shaping & implementing a workplan to create a new community ownership effort.
- Clarifying roles & responsibilities across staff and boards for CLT work
- Organizational development and transition for new & existing CLTs including staffing plans, communications, developing effective partnerships and strategic planning
- Addressing CLT membership, board representation, resident representation, governance and bylaws
- Providing education about the CLT model for staff, boards, and stakeholders, highlighting the principles of community land trusts and providing operational examples
Robin Rudderow
About Robin
After a 30+ year career in San Francisco as a business, real property and estate planning attorney in a small firm, I was pleased to move to Sonoma County in 2015 to start my own legal practice with a focus on estate planning and real property matters.
From 2018 to 2021 I was on the Board of CommonSpace CLT. When I stepped off the board, I expanded my legal practice to include community land trusts. For the CLT world, I’ve worked on a retained life estate transaction, several donations and bargain sales, and prepared a ground lease that successfully persuaded the Assessor to make a low valuation of the property due to the restrictive re-sale provision in the ground lease.
My background in real property matters includes real property sales and leasing, title and property tax issues, co-tenancy agreements, and financing documents. My work in estate planning has helped me understand people’s needs in thinking about their ultimate plans for their assets. The LLM-Tax degree I obtained in 2005 has been useful in understanding the tax consequences of the various transactions my clients have engaged in.
Conservation easements in conjunction with a CLT are an interesting way for CLTs to preserve the land and save money on taxes, especially in rural areas. My work with the Bodega Land Trust has given me good experience with conservation easements, and I’m excited to see how these concepts can be blended with community land trusts to both steward the land and provide affordable housing.
For fun, I love to garden at my Sebastopol home, and I enjoy being the volunteer archivist for the Rancho Bodega Historical Society.
I am thrilled to join the CACLTN’s Legal TA panel! I’m available for an initial 30-minute consultation to talk through potential donations or transactions AT NO CHARGE. Please fill out the request form to get started.
Brett Heeger
About Brett
Brett Heeger focuses on transactional corporate and securities matters with a passion for community economic development and social enterprise. He supports a wide range of client companies, leveraging legal tools to support all of their goals: from profit and growth, to impact and inclusion. Brett’s clients come from a range of industries, from food and tech, to real estate, consulting, and financial services.
Brett has substantial experience leading clients through the process of planning for and bringing investment into their companies. From designing and managing friends and family rounds, direct public offerings (DPOs), navigating Regulation A+ and public company compliance, to negotiating venture investments and exit opportunities, Brett prides himself on his ability to work with clients to find the right investment tools and opportunities to position their business for success.
Brett also leads the firm’s social enterprise and worker-owned cooperative efforts in Southern California. He has represented multiple cooperatives and members, and regularly presents and advises on legal matters for new and existing co-ops and social-impact minded businesses in Los Angeles. In law school, he co-founded the Community Enterprise Project, a clinical program where students engage in transactional law projects in support of under-served communities across Boston. From 2012 – 2014, Brett led projects and case teams in areas such as not-for-profit organization governance, food truck permitting and development, and urban agriculture.
Brett lives in Los Angeles with his partner, their three children, and their mostly good dog.
Christina is an attorney specializing in legal issues affecting cooperatives, nonprofits, and small creative businesses. For the last 5 years she has had her own law practice in which she provides general counsel to dozens of nonprofit organizations, including about five community land trusts and several other organizations engaged in stewarding real estate for charitable purposes. Many of her clients are led by and serve people of color in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Her nonprofit organization clients range from those in the early steps of formation to those with multiple decades of history and tens of millions in real estate assets.
Prior to her starting her own law practice, she worked at the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) for 8 years leading legislative advocacy campaigns to advance homemade food sales, local agriculture, worker cooperatives, affordable housing land trusts, housing cooperatives, and local investing. Christina has written and coauthored numerous legal information materials for nonprofit and business leaders, including several guides for the California Community Land Trust Network.
What to Expect
With Support From
Unless otherwise stated, each organization starts with 6-hours of technical assistance (TA) per program area – Real Estate, Legal, Business Planning, and Organizational Capacity Building – for the calendar year. For grant disbursement reasons, these allotted hours cannot be transferred/traded between TA areas. However, CACLTN staff will consider requests for additional hours on a case-by-case basis
By utilizing this technical assistance, you agree that it in no way should be construed as rendering any legal advice.