The need for America to build quickly and at scale has become a lively debate amongst pundits and policymakers alike, feeding the so-called “abundance” debate argument that decades of regulation and bureaucratic processes have led to unaffordable housing, crumbling infrastructure, and a delayed clean energy transition. The abundance proponents remain laser-focused on government delivery, a laudable and important goal if we are to restore Americans’ faith in government. However, proponents fail to recognize that the current crisis of faith American voters are experiencing is twofold: a loss of faith in the American political and economic order, which is where community benefit agreements come in to strengthen both and serve the needs of communities.

The question is not whether we need to build more and build faster. We do. The deeper question abundance leaves unanswered is not how we build more, but for whom and with whom we build, and community benefit agreements provide a pathway to people-centered economic development.

People no longer believe that our economic and political system will improve their life outcomes. The majority of Americans do not believe their children will be better off than their parents. Confidence in our institutions is at historic lows, with big business, the president, and Congress all at unfavorable ratings in the mid-to-high 40s. A majority think our economic system is unfair, with nearly three-quarters of adults saying it unfairly favors powerful interests. Even Republicans—the traditional pro-business party—have seen a steep decline in confidence in big business since 2018.

So, how do we move out of this twofold dilemma of needing to both build good things faster and rebuilding trust while doing the work with community benefit agreements?

For the past three years, Workshop—a national workers rights organization advancing policies to strengthen worker power through partnerships across government, advocacy, and organizing—has supported communities across the country on one promising approach: community benefit agreements. Community benefit agreements are legally binding agreements negotiated directly between developers or companies and community stakeholders who will be affected by the development. They create enforceable commitments on labor standards, local hiring, and environmental issues, shifting economic development from a zero-sum conflict into a genuine negotiation. Rather than asking communities to simply trust that a faster technocratic process will serve them, community benefit agreements give these community stakeholders a seat at the table and a stake in the outcome. They also reduce roadblocks to building and help companies build projects faster.

Read the full article about community benefit agreements by Sameera Fazili, Pronita Gupta, and Doug Bloch at Nonprofit Quarterly.