Building Community Power: How the COCP Fund Is Changing the Housing Landscape in California

When communities own the land beneath their feet, everything changes. That belief is at the heart of the Community Ownership for Community Power (COCP) Fund, an initiative rooted in community power and leadership. After three years of work, the results are clear: communities are reclaiming control and building a future where housing is centered around people, not profit.

As one of two key initiatives in Common Counsel Foundation’s Housing Justice portfolio, COCP’s mission is straightforward: expand permanently affordable land and housing across California by investing in community ownership models. The goal is to remove housing from the speculative market and place it firmly in the hands of the people who live there.

To get there, COCP works through a unique combination of grants, ecosystem support, and a dedicated capital fund, all co-designed and co-governed with community partners themselves. We are partnering with community to build the infrastructure and tools for lasting change.

A Major Milestone: The Integrated Capital Fund Is Ready

Fall 2025 marked a big moment for the Community Ownership for Community Power Fund: After years of groundwork, the Integrated Capital Fund officially hit investment-readiness. This milestone reflects years of intentional groundwork and collaboration with community partners.

In September 2025, a community-led Governing Board was established, bringing community voices directly into high-level policy decisions and strategic oversight. Alongside that, a community-led Credit Committee was formed to make the final calls on which projects receive funding. This is realizing a model where the people most affected by the housing crisis have a seat at the table where decisions are made. 

COCP also secured partnerships with Genesis LA and Community Vision, two mission-aligned lending organizations to manage the fund, and finalized a tailored set of financial products designed to meet the specific needs of community ownership groups. These offerings prioritize flexible, low-cost capital that can move at the pace communities need, not the pace that works best for traditional investors.

Ready In Times of Crisis

In the early months of 2025, devastating wildfires swept through Altadena and Pacific Palisades communities in Los Angeles, displacing thousands of families, destroying homes, and leaving entire neighborhoods in need of rebuilding. 

In moments like these, COCP’s community ownership approach offers a critical path for long-term recovery, ensuring that as communities rebuild, housing remains in community hands rather than falling prey to speculative developers.

U.S. Bank Foundation stepped up with a $500,000 grant to support wildfire relief and recovery efforts. That kind of commitment from the financial sector matters, it is one example of the growing network of investors, lenders, and funders who recognize that community ownership is a critical piece of California’s housing future. While no single grant tells the whole story, together these contributions are building an ecosystem with real staying power.

Real Impact, Real Numbers

Since launching in 2022, Community Ownership for Community Power Fund has granted $6.6 million across 30 organizations throughout California through multi-year, general operating support. These aren’t one-time checks, they’re sustained investments designed to help organizations build real capacity and lasting change.

The grantees are a diverse group of community land trusts, community development corporations, and tribal communities from across the state. And the outcomes have been meaningful. Partner organizations reported a 42% increase in full-time staffing, a critical step toward long-term stability and growth. Additionally, the number of properties under community stewardship grew by 22%, which translates to more families and people in stable, permanently affordable homes. 

These numbers tell an important story. More staff means more capacity to acquire and manage land. More properties under stewardship means more families with a secure place to call home. 

This is real progress, driven by community-led, community-designed solutions. 

We are proud to be a trusted partner among this ecosystem, and bring our skills to the table designing unique solutions for the challenges identified by movement partners. Common Counsel Foundation is a nimble and creative partner, with both the relationships and technical skills to build the infrastructure that our visionary partners need for their transformative work. 

We hope you will celebrate these steps with us and let us know if you want to learn more about the partners, our process, or the work ahead. The momentum is real, and there’s so much more to come. 

For more information please contact Emily Duma at [email protected].