Spotlight on Housing: What can be done to achieve housing relief?
It's one thing to identify a problem. It's another to determine the causes of that problem, and yet another to find practical solutions.
Over the last six weeks, the Index-Tribune's Spotlight on Housing series has examined, in depth, local issues of rising rents and crowded houses. Writers and community members have asked questions about the barriers to building more housing, looking hard at the needs of workers, families, and young people who may have found a home in Sonoma, but who now desperately need an affordable way to stay here. Two obvious questions remain.
'What now? What next?'
According to Supervisor Susan Gorin, there is plenty being done to address the need for plentiful affordable housing. But like most solutions to complex problems, tangible results are going to take some time.
'The Board of Supervisors recognizes there is a continuum of needs in the county,' Gorin says, pointing to a number of actions taken in recent months to address a host of housing-related matters. In addition to expanding homeless shelters across the county and increasing funding for several emergency shelter programs – including providing help for Sonoma Overnight Support and its First Street West shelter, the Haven – Gorin says she's enthusiastic that a number of actions currently being taken will eventually offer practical relief.
'I am working with a local group of builders and investors to identify undeveloped parcels of land and infill opportunity sites, to jump-start innovative ideas for smaller scale projects and second units,' Gorin says.
Additionally, voters this November will consider a county ballot measure to raise the Transient Occupancy Tax from nine to 12 percent. Gorin has proposed that $1 million from those TOT funds – taxes on hotels and other tourist accommodations – be allocated to create a housing trust fund. Similar to a program in the Silicon Valley, the trust fund would be used to subsidize affordable housing projects. If the ballot measure passes, it could generate an additional $4 million a year.
'We will be using the increased revenue from this measure to fund mitigations to the impact of tourism,' says Gorin, specifically naming expansions of affordable housing, roads and fire services. Gorin also points to recent discussions about converting the Sonoma Developmental Center into some sort of affordable workforce housing community, but adds that transitioning the soon-to-be-shuttered center into a practical housing community will likely take a number of years.
'The need for workforce housing is at a critical point in the Sonoma Valley, as well as the rest of the county,' she says. 'It is important to consider all strategies. It's not easy to do this when demand is high and supply is critically low. Our community needs to recognize that we are at a point where we must accept a bit more density and a bit more height in new housing projects, in order to house our adult children and our workforce.'
At the city-level, Sonoma Mayor Laurie Gallian says the City Council is similarly committed to addressing the housing shortage in practical ways, balancing long-term solutions with needs for immediate action.
'The clock is ticking, and we understand the urgency,' says Gallian. 'For one thing, winter is fast approaching, and there are people with no housing at all, so there's a timeline we are facing. In the next several weeks, we'll be having conversations with the interfaith community, and will work toward establishing whatever shelter is necessary for the coming rainy season.'
Action is being taken to alleviate the Valley-wide housing shortage as well, Gallian says, pointing not just to projects like the soon-to-be-completed Fetters Apartments in the Springs, and the 49-unit project planned for a County-owned vacant lot on Broadway.
The Sonoma Planning Commission has held two meetings in conjunction with the City Council on developing affordable housing options and identifying opportunities. Following their most recent session on Aug. 15, direction has been given to the Planning Commission, which will present a formal plan to the City Council, as early as October.
Among the ideas suggested, Gallian says, are relaxing ordinances against certain kinds of 'granny units' and allowing more 'junior accessory' dwelling units – essentially, existing rooms within houses refurbished to work as rentable living spaces with a separate entrance from the main house.
'Our housing shortage is a problem that was not created overnight, and it's not going to be solved overnight,' says Gallian. 'But we will soon have a plan of action, and we do intend to keep housing front and center.'
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