Progress in the Making
Creative spaces like ours are created spaces. This is where the people of a city actively demonstrate what it is they truly need from the land beneath their feet and from the city that is growing around them. Their needs are unmet and so they meet their own needs on their own. In essence, this is where the marginalized communities of a city create their own refuge.
As cities worldwide strive to contend with skyrocketing rents and rampant houselessness, we see the creative space communities within those cities as valuable sources of inspiration, insight and innovation. Rather than red-flagging and shuttering such places, our hope is that city officials in urban areas can learn to engage with these communities, to co-create more and better paths towards legalization as they also develop new affordable housing that is conducive to a thriving life. And is actually affordable.
Shadetree is proud to be a prize-winning contender in this continuing fight. Since we finalized the purchase –
We received great press from both KQED and NPR.
We received a cultural preservation award from the Oakland Heritage Alliance.
We were invited to participate in the Oakland/St-Denis sister city program — a cultural exchange of ideas and solution models involving affordable housing and the arts between Oakland and a like-minded suburb of Paris.
We partnered with the Bay Area Community Land Trust, CAST, and Safer DIY Spaces, allowing Shadetree to become a functioning model and test case for how to preserve and legalize creative spaces in the Bay Area.
We have regularly engaged with city officials, building inspectors, fire marshals, architects, the developers next door, attended city council and planning commission meetings — and voluntarily began the complex and lengthy process of becoming code compliant.
Our innovative purchase campaign, led by housing rights activist and advocate Donna Smithey, was such a success that she soon founded the Cultural Impact Fund to help other creative communities secure and own the land they call home.
Finally, thanks to Donna, we received a $2.5M grant from the city through Measure KK, a $600M affordable housing and infrastructure initiative, which allowed us to refinance our original loans from the purchase, with another $2.3M committed to us for renovations. And in November of 2024, we made the final payment on the loans which made our purchase possible – $2.8M paid off in 7 years.
Fight for Your Right to Live Affordably + Creatively
Every time we engage with a new ally in our city or beyond, a new organization or nonprofit, reporters, officials, artists, professionals and advocates – the cultural significance of Shadetree and the mission and purpose behind the fight we have fought and are fighting has been reflected back at every turn.
In urban areas all over the world, communities like ours band together to create the kind of housing they need — an actually affordable place to live and work, while surrounded by a supportive community and as much of the natural world as possible.
It’s not easy. It takes a village to build a village – to save it, maintain it, and thrive. There’s a lot of systems and laws that are not working in your favor. But it’s worth it. And help is out there, if you really go looking. And you may find it where you least expect it. Kind of like this place.
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If you’d like to contribute or donate to this cause, we have a lot more exciting projects on the way, including solar power and renovating our communal courtyard for public events. To learn more, contact us at: info@shadetreeartisans.org