Technical Assistance Program
Available to CA CLT Network Member Organizations
working on CLT or community ownership projects
2025 Program Guidelines
- We’re 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 for approval via the intake forms below.
- 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 members.
REAL ESTATE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
About
A CLT may find this program helpful when…
- Trying to determine the feasibility of a specific acquisition opportunity.
- Planning for rehab.
- Working with tenants to convert units to homeownership.
- Developing a property acquisition strategy.
Who Can Apply
The Real Estate TA Program is available to dues-paying member organizations of the California Community Land Trust Network for use on CLT or closely related community ownership projects. If you are unsure about whether your organization is current on its CACLTN membership, please reach out to Lydia Lopez at [email protected].
After an organization submits a request form, CACLTN will review the request and respond within 3-7 business days. If approved, we’ll match the organization to a consultant with relevant expertise, who will contact the organization by email.
All requests are valid for 3 months. If three months have passed since you last requested TA, please click “Apply” and select “Continuation of Request.”
Program Details
TA provided through this program will consist of a 60 minute introductory session (online) with an expert consultant followed by up to five hours of follow-up work with the consultant. The follow-up work can consist of subsequent coaching meetings, or hands-on assistance from the consultant such as document review.
For more information, read the full Program Description.
LEGAL TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
About
A CLT may find this program helpful when…
- Incorporating and drafting bylaws
- Applying for 501c3 status
- Developing a ground lease
- Drafting a partnership agreement
Who Can Apply
The Legal Assistance TA Program is available to current member organizations of the California Community Land Trust Network for use on CLT-related issues and projects. If you are unsure about whether your organization is current on its CACLTN membership, please reach out to Lydia Lopez at [email protected].
After an organization submits a request form, CACLTN will review the request and respond within 3-7 business days. If approved, we’ll match the organization to an attorney with relevant expertise, who will contact the organization by email.
All requests are valid for 3 months. If three months have passed since you last requested TA, please click “Apply” and select “Continuation of Request.”
Program Details
Assistance provided through this program will consist of an introductory meeting (online or by phone) with an attorney. The total of 6 hours of assistance may be rounded out by additional meetings or by time the attorney spends on drafting or reviewing documents.
For more information, read the full Program Description.
BUSINESS PLANNING TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
About
A CLT may find this program helpful when…
- Creating a working business plan
- Revising an organizational budget
- Projecting staffing and project needs
- Getting started with long-term financial planning
Who Can Apply
The Business Planning TA Program is available to dues-paying member organizations of the California Community Land Trust Network for use on CLT or closely related community ownership projects. If you are unsure about whether your organization is current on its CACLTN membership, please reach out to Lydia Lopez at [email protected].
After an organization submits a request form, CACLTN will review the request and respond within 3-7 business days. If approved, we’ll match the organization to an attorney with relevant expertise, who will contact the organization by email.
All requests are valid for 3 months. If three months have passed since you last requested TA, please click “Apply” and select “Continuation of Request.”
Program Details
This program offers CLTs access to expert consultants for up to 6 hours of consultation and follow-up. This program may assist CLTs in the following areas:
- Basic concepts of business and sustainability planning
- Assistance developing program and property management plans
- Assistance with developing a homeownership plan
- Feedback and advice on budgeting and/or projecting staffing needs
Initial assistance provided through this program will consist of an introductory meeting (online or by phone) with the assigned consultant. The total of 6 hours of assistance may be rounded out by additional meetings or by the time the consultant spends on drafting or reviewing documents.
For more information, please read the full Program Description.
CAMPAIGN PLANNING & ADVOCACY TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
About
A CLT may find this program helpful when…
- Seeking advice on a publicpolicy campaign and advocacystrategy
- Communicating priorities to candidates for office
- Building relationships with incumbent representatives
Who Can Apply
The Campaign Planning and Advocacy TA Program is available to dues-paying member organizations of the California Community Land Trust Network for use on CLT or closely related community ownership projects. If you are unsure about whether your organization is current on its CACLTN membership, please reach out to Lydia Lopez at [email protected].
After an organization submits a request form, CACLTN will review the request and respond within 3-7 business days. If approved, we’ll connect you with a provider with relevant expertise, who will contact the organization by email.
All requests are valid for 3 months. If three months have passed since you last requested TA, please click “Apply” and select “Continuation of Request.”
Program Details
This resource is aimed at assisting CACLTN members with strategy consultations on subjects related to local or regional advocacy campaigns. Topics may include educating elected officials, communicating priorities to candidates for office, relationship-building, bond measure strategy and more.
Initial assistance provided through this program will consist of an introductory meeting (online or by phone). Follow-up work can consist of subsequent coaching meetings or hands-on assistance such as providing or reviewing campaign templates and advocacy plans.
For more information, please read the full Program Description.
Meet Our Real Estate and Business Planning Providers
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
Land + Liberty
About Francis McIlveen
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
Meet Our Legal Providers
Christina Oatfield,
Attorney & Advocate
About Christina Oatfield
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.
Gundzik Gundzik Heeger LLP
About Gundzik Gundzik Heeger LLP
Real Estate and Community Ownership of Land: Our real estate law practice includes negotiation and documentation of purchase, lease, and financing transactions, as well as structuring securities offerings (both debt and equity) involving real estate.
We have also supported numerous projects furthering community and intentional ownership of land, including:
- Forming, managing, and fundraising for impact-oriented real estate funds;
- Negotiating and facilitating a land donation back to a Native American tribe;
- Advising tenant groups and community organizers on property acquisition; and
- Supporting community land trusts (CLTs) and limited equity housing cooperatives (LEHCs) with legal needs.
Social Enterprise, Community Wealth Building, and Cooperatives: We have special expertise and experience in supporting community-oriented or impact-minded enterprises seeking non-traditional capital and creative relationships with their investors. We have also served as special securities counsel on cooperative and alternative economy projects. As a result of our corporate and securities law expertise, clients turn to us for creative legal structures for ownership, governance, and fundraising.
We also have substantial experience advising cooperatives, such as worker-owned, consumer-owned, and multi-stakeholder cooperative businesses. In addition, we handle employee buyouts and cooperative conversions wherein we advise on the purchase of existing businesses to employees.
Robin Rudderow, Attorney
About Robin Rudderow
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.
Meet Our Campaign Planning & Advocacy TA Provider
Wild Cat Consulting
About Amy Hines-Shaikh
Amy Hines-Shaikh founded Wild Cat Consulting, LLC in June of 2018 after the Janus vs. AFSCME Supreme Court decision to help strengthen labor unions in the wake of right wing attacks. Amy Hines-Shaikh has been the legislative advocate for the California Community Land Trust Network since December 2020.
Amy has worked for many Labor Unions within her career, including the UAW, SEIU, AFSCME, AFT, and CWA. Her latest position was a Legislative and Political Director for a statewide labor union. Prior to that Amy was the Executive Director for another statewide labor union. Amy has many years of experience in al three sides of the “union triangle” – organizing, bargaining, and political affairs. To read more about Amy, visit her website or LinkedIn.
With Support From
Have Questions?
Contact Shirley Kawafuchi, Program Manager, at (510) 244-3784 or via email below.
Unless otherwise stated, each Network member organization starts with 6 hours of technical assistance (TA) per program area – Real Estate, Legal, Business Planning, and Campaign Planning and Advocacy – 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.