A group of refugees in San Diego is building a world-first community land trust that is providing housing and business opportunities for newly arrived families.

Founded by Somalian refugee Ramla Sahid, the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans (PANA) is a not-for-profit agency staffed by refugees and working towards building economic, social and civic power for refugees and displaced communities in the Californian city.

Using grant money from philanthropists and the Californian government, the organisation secured a hectare of land in San Diego’s gentrifying and diverse City Heights district in 2023.

Now, the group is seeking an additional $US4 million to develop a multipurpose ‘Global Village’” campus that will include affordable housing, childcare, small business opportunities and other resources for the region’s refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants.

Residents will own and control development which was designed in partnership with more than 2,000 community members who migrated from Somalia, Afghanistan, Mexico, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and other nations.

Local immigrants held discussions, created drawings and played with models to inform the design.

Their development will include 167 units of affordable housing, transitional housing for migrants and asylum seekers, a market for small business incubation, a community convening space, emergency services, and a not-for-profit hub offering childcare and other wrap-around services.

“We need more land to be out of private hands and into community hands so we can foster self-determination and belonging for refugee immigrant communities. So, we don’t have to give up who we are, culturally and as a community. And we can build our cultures and our practices into these civic spaces,” Ms Sahid told local media.

“Housing insecurity is becoming more and more of a challenge in terms of being able to remain in San Diego, and that is also impacting our organisation’s ability to remain in the historic communities we’ve been in,” she said.

“It’s not just the housing crisis. Commercial spaces are also becoming increasingly expensive. So, all of that work of trying to fight for fair housing, trying to promote an equitable development that supports low-wage workers in securing affordable housing and protecting tenants who are at risk of displacement is absolutely essential,” Ms Sahid said.

San Diego is one of the least affordable cities in the world, according to a 2024 study.

But the region is also home to one of the largest populations of refugees and asylum seekers in the state, with over 30,000 refugees having been resettled in the San Diego region since 1975, according to the International Rescue Committee.

According to a 2023 report from the Sand Diego Foundation, almost 22 per cent of San Diego County’s population is made up of immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers, making it the ninth-highest total immigrant population among all US counties.

The development comes as migrant communities in the US are also faced with an openly anti-immigration federal government that is extending travel bans to more than 30 countries, arresting and deporting asylum seekers and ramping up immigration enforcement.

Read more here:  PANA