John Emmeus Davis papers

File

Identifier: 8815

No requestable containers
Staff Only
Request
Ask a Question

Content Description

The John Emmeus Davis papers document the professional action, teaching, and writing of the scholar and community land trust activist John Emmeus Davis (b. 1949), dating from 1968 to 2022. The collection consists of reports, correspondence, memoranda, proposals, case studies, handwritten notes, papers, books and booklets, transparencies, DVDs, slide shows, and other digital material focused on housing programs and community land trust corporations, publications and technical writing, lectures, speeches, and interviews of John E. Davis, relevant courses, workshops, and biographical files. Documents cover the mission, programs, and policies of the City of Burlington, Vermont’s Community and Economic Development Office (CEDO), with a particular focus on the housing division headed by John Emmeus Davis for ten years, as well as the formation and operation of the Burlington Community Land Trust (BCLT), renamed the Champlain Housing Trust in 2006 after a merger of BCLT and the Lake Champlain Housing Development Corporation (1984-2021). The material also pertains to several case studies, in alphabetical order of technical assistance to national, international, and local NGOs and municipal or state governments (1983-2022). The collection also includes books, manuals, reports, and articles authored, co-authored, edited, or co-edited by John Emmeus Davis, including the various blogs written for Shelterforce Magazine’s online journal, Rooflines; speeches, interviews, and lectures; training, workshops, and graduate-level college courses taught by John Emmeus Davis, focused on housing policy and neighborhood planning. The digital material includes several relevant films and slide shows, and the collection overlaps significantly with manuscripts.

Dates

1968-2022

Creator

Davis, John Emmeus, 1949- (Person)

Biographical / Historical

John Emmeus Davis (b. 1949) is a scholar, community activist, and organizer best known for his contributions to the understanding and development of community land trusts (CTL). His professional practice, teaching, and writing focused on assisting municipal governments, community land trusts, and other NGOs in developing policies and programs for the creation of housing that remains permanently affordable. He earned his B.A. in Philosophy from Vanderbilt University in 1971, an M.S. in Developmental Sociology from Cornell University in 1981, and a Ph.D. in Community Development Planning and Community and Regional Sociology from Cornell in 1986. He is the co-founder and board president of the Center for Community Land Trust Innovation (2018) and editor-in-chief of Terra Nostra Press (2018-now). He was also a partner in Burlington Associates in Community Development (1993). Davis helped establish the National CTL Academy in 2006 and served four years as the Academy’s Dean. Between 1986 and 1996, he was the city’s housing director in Burlington, Vermont, under the Mayors Bernie Sanders and Peter Clavel. Earlier, he worked at the Institute for Community Economics and in Appalachia as a community organizer, social worker, and director of a social services program. Davis is the author, co-author, and editor of several publications. He has drafted municipal ordinances for inclusionary zoning, housing trust funds, and restrictions on the demolition and conversion of housing. He is the co-author of the Community Land Trust Handbook (Rodale Press, 1982) and the author of the “community land trusts” definition enacted into federal law in 1992. He is also the co-producer of the film “Arch of Justice: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of a Beloved Community (2016) and technical advisor in the films “Streets of Dreams: Development without Displacement in Communities of Color,” and, “Home and Hands: Community Land Trusts in Action.” For his contributions to advancing the cause of CLTs, he received the Swann-Matthei Award from the National CLT Network in 2006.

Extent

4.4 cubic feet. (4.4 cubic feet)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Reports, correspondence, memoranda, proposals, case studies, handwritten notes, papers, books, booklets, transparencies, DVDs, slide shows, and other digital material focused on housing programs and community land trust corporations, publications and technical writing, lectures, speeches, and interviews, courses, workshops, and biographical files of the scholar and community land trust activist John Emmeus Davis (b. 1949), document his professional action, teaching, and writing, dating from 1968 to 2022.