Dudley Neighbors Inc

Dudley Neighbors Inc. is a community land trust (CLT) that protects over 30 acres of community-controlled land in Boston's Roxbury and North Dorchester neighborhoods. At DNI, we carry out the development mission of Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, which emphasizes development without displacement. Our CLT is governed by a Board of Directors with the majority of seats held by residents of the community.  Vacant land in the Dudley Triangle has been transformed into 

• 225 affordable homes, 

• a 10,000 square foot community greenhouse, 

• an urban farm, 

• a playground, 

• gardens

Dudley Neighbors Inc. is recognized as one of the nation's most successful urban community land trusts and serves as a model for other communities organizing to promote development without displacement and long-term control of the land.

History

As a result of Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative’s community organizing efforts in the late 1980s, the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) granted DNI the power of eminent domain in the Dudley Triangle neighborhood. Historically the government has used eminent domain authority to displace residents when a road, government building or public utility is being constructed. Dudley Neighbors Inc. is known as the first and only community-run grassroots organization to gain the power of eminent domain to improve the community with sustainable development by seizing vacant land. Dudley Triangle residents have established community control over a significant number of the 1,300 parcels of abandoned land that characterized the neighborhood in the 1980s and have realized a vision of development without displacement.