Combating Green Gentrification: Exploring Green Roofs on Affordable Housing

Bianca Bowman, Caroline Ellenbird, Ana Vanegas

Comunidades Enraizadas is a community land trust created by a group of primarily Latina immigrants in Chelsea, MA, supported by GreenRoots, a communitybased organization dedicated to engaging and empowering residents to fight for environmental justice and public health. GreenRoots and Comunidades Enraizadas are committed to building community land sovereignty in the face of gentrification. As Comunidades Enraizadas works to acquire and build new properties that will remain affordable housing, they are exploring opportunities to build green roofs on affordable housing units to reduce urban heat island effects and improve access to green space in their lowincome, Latinx environmental justice community.