Gen H Monthly News and Updates |
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How a Home Also Became a Job: Meet a Proud MidPenner
Marisa, a resident of MidPen’s Fetters Apartments next door, shared her story at the Grand Opening celebration in January 2018. She spoke of a time before living at Fetters Apartments, a single mom of four trying to make ends meet in Sonoma. Marisa and her children lived in a tiny two-bedroom apartment, which became increasingly unaffordable.
Read the rest of Marisa's story and other housing stories here.
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Message to our Elected Leaders:
Don’t just spend it, invest it — in housing
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Our community is facing a perfect storm of crises – housing, health, economic. We have a singular opportunity to overcome all these crises at once by investing in our people, our homes, and our future.
More and more affordable housing has topped the City of Santa Rosa’s, the County of Sonoma’s, and community priority lists for several years. For good reason. We didn’t have enough housing before the wildfires took 5 percent of the City’s housing stock in a single night, and more county-wide. Even our local kids worry about housing, with a recent survey revealing that 96 percent of the County’s students naming “affordable housing” as our number one community need.
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SIGN THE PETITION AND TAKE ACTION TODAY
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We urge the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors and Santa Rosa City Council to support housing and make generational impact by investing in housing production and rental assistance for all of our neighbors and families.
You can read Gen H's letter to our elected leaders and sign the petition here.
Submit a comment to the County of Sonoma:
Submit a comment to the City of Santa Rosa:
Community members are encouraged to provide input by emailing suggestions to citycouncil@srcity.org between now and September 15, 2020.
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We are Gen H! Become a member today! |
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Board Member Spotlight: Peter Rumble |
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Peter Rumble serves as CEO of the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber, where he provides leadership and coordination on critical issues including housing, workforce development, advocacy, tourism promotion, and downtown revitalization. Since joining the Chamber, Peter’s team has expanded the organization’s programs, including a housing fund to invest in affordable housing, and created several new programs to support the growth of small business in Sonoma County.
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New Report Published By Generation Housing Estimates Rent Shortfall in Sonoma County Due to COVID-19 |
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Late July, as the federal unemployment insurance benefits were set to expire, Generation Housing released a report detailing the potential magnitude of the impact renters and rental housing providers could be facing in Sonoma County. In the report entitled “Making the Rent: Examining the Scale of the Rent Shortfall in Sonoma County Due to COVID-19”, Generation Housing finds that the supplemental $600 weekly unemployment insurance benefits were crucial in stabilizing local households amid a historic spike in job loss due to the pandemic. |
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Despite many still being unable or ineligible to receive benefits, the enhanced benefits have been a lifeline allowing many to pay their bills. But the benefits expire at the end of July with Sonoma County renters and rental housing providers facing uncertainty and significant need. The report offers estimates for the rent shortfall and the amount needed in rental assistance under different scenarios as the policy and economic landscape continue to change. For example, assuming a scenario in which the enhanced benefits are extended, Sonoma County could support impacted households for the next 6 months with a $28 million rental assistance fund.
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Upcoming Events
In Conversation with Richard Rothstein on Housing Segregation | Date TBD
Generation Housing and Los Cien are proud to present, as part of the Housing Equity Series: “The Color of the Law”, A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by author & speaker Richard Rothstein.
In THE COLOR OF LAW, Richard Rothstein argues with exacting precision and fascinating insight how segregation in America—the incessant kind that continues to dog our major cities and has contributed to so much recent social strife—is the byproduct of explicit government policies at the local, state, and federal level.
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Generation Housing has been busy at work this month. In this month’s update, we’ll share with you some of the notable state legislative bills we’ve been working to support along with an important local effort to invest in spurring housing production and protecting our neighbors from an emerging rent shortfall.
The legislature closes session today with a number of housing bills approved or pending approval that Generation Housing supported and that are now headed to Governor Newsom’s desk for his signature. The legislative proposals that follow are ones that Generation Housing has actively advocated for....
Read the rest of our advocacy update here
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Gen H Launches New Housing Project Tracker |
If you’ve ever wondered what kind of housing is being proposed and built in Sonoma County, our latest tool helps you better understand housing across all cities in Sonoma County. We’re excited to launch a new online tool that tracks housing proposals in one central location.
This tool is designed to inform a broader audience about the kinds of housing being built by facilitating the flow of information so that people can more easily understand and engage with the local planning process. In this tool, one can find the latest housing proposals by city and then see a bevy of characteristics about the project such as affordability, number of units, and when the next upcoming public hearing for it will be.
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Demystifying Housing Policy:
Five Housing Terms Everyone Should Know
Housing affects all of us, yet the terminology used to discuss housing can be fraught with insider lingo and difficult to fully grasp. So we’ve compiled a brief list of some of the most common terms used in the housing policy world to help everyone better understand and engage in the housing conversation.
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
A home is generally considered affordable if the household pays 30% or less of their gross income (before taxes are taken out) towards rent/mortgage payments. The term usually refers to homes affordable to people with low, very low and extremely low income, including low-wage working families, seniors on fixed incomes, veterans, people with disabilities and the homeless. There are different kinds of affordable homes, including public housing (owned by the local housing authority), Section 8 vouchers that help people rent privately owned homes, and privately-owned housing developments with restricted rents. In the Bay Area, many affordable homes are built and managed by nonprofit organizations.
DENSITY
The level of concentration (high or low) of buildings, including their total volume, within a given area. Often expressed as a ratio, i.e. homes per acre.
HOUSING COST BURDEN
When 30% or more of a household’s income is spent on housing costs. Many households are severely over-burdened and pay more than 50% of their income towards housing.
INFILL DEVELOPMENT
A strategy for accommodating growth and preventing sprawl through greater density and efficiency in land use development within existing urban boundaries.
NONPROFIT HOUSING
Nonprofit housing is developed by nonprofit corporations with a community board of directors and specific mission. Most housing developed by nonprofit housing developers is affordable with rents or prices below market-rate. Income generated from the housing is put back into the buildings and the mission of the organization, rather than being distributed to stockholders or individual investors as would be the case in for-profit housing.
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Sonoma County Housing News Digest
In case you missed some of the key news items of the last few weeks on local housing, Generation Housing has procured a bevy of news articles from around Sonoma County.
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Sonoma County effort to buy Sebastopol Inn for Homeless housing draws opposition | Press Democrat
“Sonoma County housing officials’ push to buy the Sebastopol Inn to shelter homeless residents amid the COVID-19 pandemic started with a move by the motel’s owner offering to sell. Barbie Robinson, the county’s chief homelessness official, confirmed Tuesday the pitch from the inn was first brought to the county July 29, more than three weeks after county real estate negotiators began working with owners of Hotel Azura in downtown Santa Rosa that county officials have targeted for the same purpose.”
Tri Counties Bank Awarded $940,000 in Grants from the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco | BusinessWire
“Two grants were awarded – one on behalf of PEP Housing in Santa Rosa for $350,000, which will be used for the development of 25 low-income senior housing units, and a second to the Veterans Housing Development Corporation for $590,000, which will provide much needed funding for the development of Veterans housing in Windsor, CA.”
“Senior Housing – Siesta Drive - Last month “Springs Splash” identified a parcel of land behind the Arroyo Veterinary off Siesta Drive that is in the process of obtaining Planning Commission approval. It is proposed that 92 affordable senior housing units be constructed on property now housing a mobile home park including twelve (12) households. This includes 25 adults and 11 children who are subject to eviction. The new development is planned for 300 seniors in a three story building.”
“The first residents are moving into 120 apartments at 38 Degrees North, the first phase of a newly constructed southeast Santa Rosa apartment community. It’s a project by global real estate company Kennedy Wilson (NYSE:KW). The project, located at 1020 Kawana Springs Road at Petaluma Hill Road, is targeted to tenants who want high-end apartment living with modern residences and amenities, according to the developer. About 40% of the units are leased so far.”
Sonoma County health officer, housing rights advocates speak out in favor of eviction bans and other tenant safeguards | Press Democrat
“Sonoma County Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase long ago emerged as the county’s most public voice on epidemiology, pandemic interventions and detective work needed to confront the deadly coronavirus. On Monday morning, Mase weighed in on a subject that at first blush sounded outside her purview: rental evictions.”
Affordable Housing Developments Honored at 2020 Virtual Gold Nugget Awards: MidPen Housing garners two affordable grand awards | Affordable Housing Finance
“Best Affordable Housing Community – under 30 du/acre: Celestina Garden and Fetters Apartments in Sonoma County, Calif.
Builder/Developer: MidPen Housing; Architects/Designers: MBH Architects in collaboration with Jon Worden Architects”
“The city of Santa Rosa is now receiving public comments on a 20-year plan that imagines far-reaching changes in the city’s downtown. The Downtown Station Area Specific Plan arrives with the opportunity to recalibrate old assumptions about where people live and work, how they travel and where they go for entertainment.”
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