Why Woodstock Housing Alliance?

Woodstock Housing Alliance was launched in 2022 when for years Woodstock and the surrounding region, had been in the midst of a real estate siege. Siege is a military term and means a blockade of a city or fortified place to compel it to surrender. 

So technically, Woodstock is not under siege because it’s not fortified and is not a city. But from a metaphorical perspective, Woodstock is fortified, by this community’s commitment to conserve and protect its natural environment and to maintain its diversity of people that represents a cultural and economic resilience.

To continue the siege metaphor, the commodification of property in Woodstock has displaced the certainty of housing, a human right, and has placed land subject to the dictates of the highest bidder, giving those with means the right to state “This land is my land”. This siege has forced the town’s residents to surrender their homes, as they are no longer able to afford the cost of living, and it has weakened the very fabric of the culture that makes our rural towns places of destination. In these circumstances disruption is a valuable tool to counter the negative impact of such a siege.

Woodstock Housing Alliance, a Community Land Trust, is deploying a model that disrupts the real estate market, by removing the land the Alliance owns from the marketplace. No longer available to the market, the removal of land directly impacts the value of the property and the buildings on it.  Unlike a traditional land trust, which strives to conserve open lands, wilderness, and waterways, a community land trust utilizes its lands for housing.

For generations traditional land trusts in Woodstock and the surrounding communities have strived to conserve their lands that today represent a lasting beauty created by this region’s natural environment of open space, wilderness, and waterways. We all enjoy the views afforded us through the on-going effort to protect the open space commons for the general good of the Catskill Region. Many live or travel here to enjoy being in the natural wonder of this region.

Woodstock Housing Alliance exists to have a similar lasting impact for Woodstock and the surrounding communities of the Eastern Catskills, by establishing lands designated to be conserved for housing that will remain permanently affordable for generations. These properties, that is housing in the rural towns of this region, are intended to be the homes for seniors, young people starting families, artists and employees of local businesses and town services. By creating a commons of land and housing, WHA will contribute to sustaining the diversity and resiliency of the towns in this wonderful region. This is the answer to the question, Why Woodstock Housing Alliance.