The Sacramento Community Land Trust has acquired its first property — a community garden in west Del Paso Heights.
The land trust was established in 2018 after years of organizing by neighborhood groups, with the intention of preventing displacement and building power in historically discriminated neighborhoods in Sacramento.
Executive Director Tamika L’Ecluse said the trust has achieved a part of that mission with this first property, which is also connected to a small tiny home village that helps community members experiencing homelessness.
“This was exactly the kind of space that we should be in, and exactly the kind of space that we should help ensure stays functioning and stays operational and remains an amenity and an asset and available to the community members here,” she said.
The property is about 7,400 square feet (about the size of a typical housing lot) and has planter boxes, a large shade structure covering a series of long picnic tables, and a seating area with outdoor furniture. Elderberry bushes and stone fruit trees line the path, and cucumbers, sunflowers, and herbs are nestled in the boxes. Community members and homeless youth with the Sierra Service Project help landscape.
A community garden acquired by the Sacramento Community Land Trust in Del Paso Heights on August 15, 2024.Kate Wolffe/CapRadio
A little free library is available to the residents of a tiny home village in the backyard of Del Paso Heights resident Robin Merritt-Moore.Kate Wolffe/CapRadio
Sacramento Community Land Trust Executive Director Tamika L'Ecluse shows the inside of a kitchen built for residents of a tiny home village in Del Paso Heights on August 15, 2024.Kate Wolffe/CapRadioL’Ecluse, who is the trust’s first executive director and has held the position for a year, said the trust purchased the property from the existing owner in June. The purchase was made with funds from the Community Ownership for Community Empowerment Fund, distributed through the Common Counsel Foundation, which supports progressive causes. The foundation also provided the funds necessary to hire L’Ecluse.
An empty lot no more
When the pandemic began, Del Paso Heights resident Robin Merritt-Moore wasn’t able to do any of the volunteer work she’d been doing for years.
“I said I can do something,” she said. “I'm gonna do something.”
She got permits and built three tiny homes in her backyard, plus another building with a kitchen and bathrooms. Merritt-Moore says she teamed up with local nonprofits and has housed 34 families so far. She said she felt joyful when the school bus started stopping outside her house to pick up children who lived in the tiny homes, who would otherwise be homeless.
A tiny home village is in the backyard of Del Paso Heights resident Robin Merritt-Moore's home.Kate Wolffe/CapRadio
After she’d built the homes, she often found herself looking over at the empty lot next door.
“These kids need to be able to stretch their legs out, you know, because when you're living tiny, you should live outside, or you should have auxiliary space,” she said.
Merritt-Moore began renting the land from the owner, and started putting together the garden with help from neighbors and tiny home residents.
When it seemed like the arrangement was going to fall apart because of a rent hike, Merritt-Moore says she was able to leverage her connection with the land trust. The trust held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the property on Aug. 17.
“All these things that I would dream about when I would look over and see the empty lot actually can take place now,” she said.
Sacramento Community Land Trust Executive Director Tamika L'Ecluse (left) sits in the zen garden of the tiny home village Robin Merritt-Moore built in her backyard on August 15, 2024.Kate Wolffe/CapRadio
Merritt-Moore says the plan is to build a resource center, host community events, and enjoy the spoils of the garden.
“If we were to do a spiritual forensic fingerprint test, there's probably 2,000 fingerprints over there — some of which have come one time, some of which have been back multiple times. This is a community effort,” she said.
What is a land trust?
Land trusts traditionally maintain affordability by purchasing land and selling any property on that land to a low-income home owner, who can pass the home down to their descendents, or sell it back to the trust to be sold to another low-income resident. Housing and land are purchased with grants and donations.
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