A message from Generation Housing Executive Director |
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Generation Housing strives to bring a strong equity ethic to its work every day, and it’s especially important during Black History Month, that we acknowledge the history behind and present impact of the gross inequities in past housing policy.
It is not an accident that Sonoma County remains geographically and racially separated, even in its schools, which remain as segregated as pre-civil rights era southern schools.
Segregation today is the lasting legacy of federal, state, and local housing policies from the last century — exclusionary zoning, redlining, discriminatory federal housing programs, and more — that directly resulted in persistent and significant segregation and gaps in homeownership and wealth between Black and white communities which continue to this day.
Prominent Black leaders in Sonoma County fought for years to improve access to housing for Black residents, and housing was and still is a key issue for the NAACP. The late Willie Garrett, president of the local chapter of the NAACP during the 1960s, struggled to find a real estate agent in Santa Rosa who would work with him after moving here in the mid-1950s. “This is the story of our life, from one dilemma to another,” Garrett said in 1966 of housing challenges. Eventually, Garrett and his family found an owner willing to sell them land on Los Alamos Road despite objections from some white residents. The family home they built there was so beloved that Garrett lived there for five decades before he died in 2019.
Garrett was a local civil rights trailblazer who fought hard against racial discrimination to become a homeowner, but statistically his story isn’t as common among Black residents in Sonoma County and across the U.S. The national rate of Black homeownership is 44.1 percent, while the rate of white homeownership is 74.5 percent, according to 2020 data from the U.S. Census Bureau. White households are twice as likely to own homes in Sonoma County compared to Black households, which have a homeownership rate of 33 percent, according to our 2022 State of Housing report. Additionally, 65 percent of Black renters in Sonoma County are rent burdened — spending more than 30 percent of income on housing — including 19 percent of Black renters who are severely rent burdened and spending more than half of their income on housing...
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TOMORROW: State of Housing in Sonoma County Webinar| February 24th 4:00 - 6:00PM, Virtual |
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Join us for a virtual release of our State of Housing In Sonoma County Report! This report aims to educate the public, community leaders, and policy-makers so that we can make informed, evidence-based decisions on policy, projects, and funding as we address our housing shortage. |
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Generation Housing Members' Monthly House Party | March 17th 4:30 - 5:30PM, Virtual |
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Being a Generation Housing member comes with its perks, and one of them is free admission to members-only educational, networking, and advocacy events.
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Read our latest report if you haven't done so already! |
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State of Housing in Sonoma County |
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The State of Housing in Sonoma County report is a comprehensive report, over 60 pages, covers, among other things, housing stock and cost, density, land use, homebuilding, population shifts and demographic breakdowns of housing cost burden and overcrowding.
This report aims to educate the public, community leaders, and policy-makers so that we can make informed, evidence-based decisions on policy, projects, and funding as we address our housing shortage.
Solving our housing dilemmas has positive ripple effects. The availability of safe, stable, and affordable housing for our community members is a critical driver for individual economic opportunity, better educational performance, and improved health outcomes. The future economic vitality and resilience of our county is jeopardized if young workers, students, and families cannot stay or cannot live in a healthy way because of housing cost burden. Investment in housing production is a powerful economic engine and job creator. Well-planned affordable housing is a boon for the environment — decreasing our carbon footprint and preserving our open space.
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Sign up to volunteer at community events to meet people, talk housing, and engage them in our work. |
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Jorge Inocencio | Board Member |
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Jorge Inocencio is a life-long resident of Santa Rosa. He grew up in Roseland, graduated from Elsie Allen High School, attended Santa Rosa Junior College and completed his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering at Sonoma State University. He is currently an electrical engineer at Keysight Technologies. Jorge is active in his community and is passionate about improving the quality of life for all Sonoma County residents with a particular interest in South and Southwest Santa Rosa. |
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Sign up for ACTION ALERTS! |
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The Housing Element:
Hardworking people should be able to afford housing and still have enough money for groceries and basic necessities. Children deserve an opportunity to succeed in school and life as well, which is tied to having a stable home. Housing is a basic human need.
To succeed you need a place to call home. For OUR COMMUNITY to be successful, we need you to get activated and let your voice be heard, because Your Voice Matters. Our local families deserve to have access to a diversity of quality homes that meet the needs of all income levels. Because after all, families make the community.
What does it mean to get active and how can you support pro-housing voices?
You have a once in a decade opportunity to shape the future of housing in Sonoma County. This year, all jurisdictions in the North Bay – including cities, towns, and the unincorporated county – are updating the Housing Element, a plan for the housing needed in every community. Public input is ESSENTIAL for Housing Elements! To undo decades of exclusionary housing policies, we need you to show up, speak up, and make your pro-housing voice be heard. Here’s what you can do to get engaged with this process:
Watch this short video to learn what the housing element is!
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Maricela
When Maricela and her husband migrated to the U.S. to give their daughters more opportunities in life, they didn’t expect housing to be easier for them to attain than their children.
They’ve lived here 25 years, and 18 years ago they bought their family’s humble home in Petaluma, something Marciela said they wouldn’t be able to afford at today’s high prices. Her worry now is that her four daughters won’t be able to live in Sonoma County, where she settled to raise her children and where she would like to stay.
It’s hard for Maricela to believe that her daughters — who have degrees and jobs — can’t find a place to live. “How could it have been easier for a migrant couple with no job experience and a language and culture barrier, to find a decent place to live, than educated American young adults?”
Even though Marciela and her husband commute outside the county for work, they don’t wish to leave their home in Petaluma. As much as they love Sonoma County, Marciela’s number one issue with the area is housing. She said it’s disappointing, and home and rental prices are ridiculous and way out of reach.
“We got lucky, but the chances are against my daughters and my friends — I don’t think they will be as lucky.”
Help Generation Housing ensure housing availability for people like Maricela by joining #WeAreGenH now!
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We are teachers, first responders, farm workers. We are grocers, we are artists. |
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Together, each of you, all of us, and all residents of Sonoma County. We Are Gen H, and we all need affordable places to live.
The “We Are Gen H” pro-housing campaign lifts up the experiences of workers, artists, and students in the community and organizes community members to take action and show support for more construction of more types of housing in Sonoma County.
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155 Dry Creek Road, “Dry Creek Commons” | Healdsburg
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Generation Housing proudly endorses the Dry Creek Commons development proposed at 155 Dry Creek Road.
In partnership with the City of Healdsburg, Burbank Housing will develop this 3.5 acre vacant city-owned site with affordable housing for lower income families in our community. Reach for Home will also be partnering on this project to provide a suite of management support services for both families and individuals that live onsite.
The project’s proximity to public transit (2 bus depots are located within a ¼ mile, a less than 5-minute walk), nearby access to Highway 101, adjacent placement to Big John’s Market, and immediate vicinity to Healdsburg District Hospital and other essential services makes this development a standout example of what it means to create a walkable, bikeable, and transit-oriented community. Moreover, the project would consist of 58 total units, which includes 16 two to three bedroom units and 5 units dedicated for permanent supportive housing. The proposed development would offer deed-restricted units for families between 30 - 80 percent of the area median income, which aligns with Generation Housing’s efforts to convert underutilized public lands for the development of affordable housing. Lastly, the project will feature such amenities as a central gathering plaza which connects to the common room, teen center and lobby. What’s more, this project offers ample onsite open space, boardwalks, and play areas that will encourage opportunities for communal activities. But if that’s not enough, residents can easily access the Foss Creek Pathway which connects to the nearby Healdsburg Community Center and Carson Warner Memorial Skatepark.
We applaud the innovative approach Burbank Housing has taken with designing this well-located affordable housing project that will serve a diversity of residents in the Healdsburg community. It addresses several key community priorities such as providing housing for local teachers, firefighters, and hospitality workers in addition to protecting the Foss Creek watershed and riparian corridor. This level of care and consideration showcases what it means to work collaboratively with the community to ensure that we not only maximize multi-family rental housing opportunities, but do so in a manner that minimizes the overall impact to surrounding habitats.
Dry Creek Commons will come before the Healdsburg Planning Commission tonight (2/23) for a community workshop at 6:00 PM. For more information, click here to access the agenda and Zoom Webinar link.
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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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This is a powerful opportunity for anyone who cares about the long-term viability of our economy, our climate action efforts, and providing quality housing that our local families can afford,“.
It’s going to take all of the above. That’s the only way we’ll be able to get there. But it’s doable. With housing costs, there’s a direct relationship between supply and demand,” Executive Director Jen Klose said, further pointing out a lower inventory since out-of-town remote workers started moving in during the pandemic. “We didn’t have the spare housing to deal with this influx of demand.”
PD Editorial: Downtown Santa Rosa is the right spot for new county offices | The Press Democrat
Generation Housing, a fledgling housing advocacy group in Sonoma County, aims to help hold local governments accountable in distributing their housing allocations fairly and equitably across the region, a key objective handed down by the state for the upcoming housing cycle. Calum Weeks, policy director with Generation Housing, said local officials should put a focus on planning for more housing and upgrading infrastructure in undeserved areas such as the predominantly Latino neighborhoods in southwest Santa Rosa.
2021 Portrait of Sonoma County: Well-being study finds new successes, ongoing challenges along race, ethnicity, gender and geographic lines | The Press Democrat
Jen Klose, the executive director for Generation Housing, a local housing advocacy nonprofit, said that data made sense given that the construction of homes in Sonoma County has long failed to keep pace with local demand.
The nonprofit Generation Housing Sonoma County, a Santa Rosa-based local affordable housing advocacy group*,sent the commission a letter on Dec. 23 expressing its “strongest support for the immediate approval” of the project on Asti Road, north of Railroad Avenue, in Cloverdale, which includes farmworker housing.
The housing shortage in Sonoma Valley requires “ground trooping,” according to Calum Weeks, policy director of Generation Housing, where local sympathizers seek and identify the best place for new housing elements to be developed. However, Sonoma Vice Mayor Kelso Barnett said that housing scarcity in Sonoma Valley is not something that can be addressed as simply as creating more housing.
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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 it can be 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.
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 (see Severe Cost Burden)..
HOUSING ELEMENT
A required element of all California city general plans, housing elements identify and analyze housing needs and include goals, objectives, policies and programs for providing a city’s fair share of affordable housing needs. Although state law mandates that jurisdictions rezone enough land to meet their regional housing needs allocation and each jurisdiction is required to have an approved housing element, jurisdictions retain local land use control and Housing Elements are only plans for housing. Advocates then push for implementation of these plans and work tirelessly to get these cities and counties to produce the homes their communities desperately need.
INCLUSIONARY ZONING
A requirement that developers of new housing include a certain percentage of below market- rate homes. Inclusionary Zoning is a local law and each city that passes this law decides how many units must be affordable, and what price is considered affordable. Often developers can pay the city an “in-lieu fee” instead of including affordable units, which allows the city to use the money to build new affordable homes. In California, there is a legal challenge to Inclusionary Zoning’s application to rental housing, which is now being debated at the California State Supreme Court.
MARKET-RATE HOUSING
Housing built by for-profit developers with private capital, generally for people above 120% Area Median Income, adjusted for household size.
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