WALT

Background

The Westside Atlanta Land Trust (WALT) is an organization for community empowerment centered around permanently affordable housing in English Avenue and Vine City. They compiled a dataset of the neighborhoods’ built environment and county tax data to codify and acquire lots for a Community Land Trust (CLT). We have been collaborating with them to use their data as a strategy to advocate for a city-wide CLT policy to present to the city and county and local communities. Our primary research goal is to understand how WALT uses data to empower the community and organize a CLT policy that fits with the city. We hypothesize that data aggregation and presentation functions as a way of organizing the community more effectively in contentious conditions and creates a fit with the city and stakeholders. Our research and advocacy results are forthcoming in a journal article.