Help us complete the Stuart Street Co-op!

1638 Stuart Street was a long-time vacant and deteriorating apartment building in South Berkeley, until the McGee Ave Baptist Church partnered with the Bay Area Community Land Trust (BACLT) to renovate these eight apartments into brand new, permanently affordable homes for lower income residents. The past two years have been especially challenging for a renovation project due to delays and rapidly inflated costs. As of August 2022 we completed 99% of the project, but ran out of funds just before needing to pave the driveway and add landscaping.

Help us cross the finish line at Stuart Street Co-op Apartments! We need to raise $50,000 to complete the exterior beautification of this historic property.

Any size donation will help!

Established in 1916, the historic McGee Avenue Baptist Church has owned the Church and apartment building next door since 1930. As the neighborhood gentrified over the years, and black families moved out of the area, the congregation has continued to serve the community every Sunday with services at the Church. However, the apartments remained vacant and deteriorating until 2016, when the Church approached BACLT with a desire to give back to their South Berkeley community by renovating and offering them as permanently affordable housing for low-income residents.

The Bay Area Community Land Trust advances housing as a human right by creating permanently affordable, resident-controlled housing cooperatives by acquiring, converting, and preserving affordable rental housing in which low-income residents are at risk of displacement. BACLT also revives vacant buildings that are under-utilized, offers resident training on cooperative property management and is governed by its low-income residents and members.