Rental Crisis in real life terms
By Anna Pier
It’s not news that there is a rental crisis in the Sonoma Valley. Since 2013 the supply of homes and apartments for rent has been decreasing, the demand growing, and as one longtime real estate agent told me in her office on the Plaza, “Only the rich can afford to live here.”
She continued, “People are getting too greedy – rents are obscene.” Not an exaggerated statement, considering that the median rent for a two-bedroom, one-bath place is $1,600, more than the entire gross monthly pay of someone working for minimum wage.
What is news is how it is affecting people’s lives. Verónica Vences, Health and Wellness Manager at La Luz Center, told of two different families coming in on the first Monday of this month for help understanding the Notices to Quit that they had received from their landlords. Vences spoke about the regular stream of clients who need to find a new place to rent. “They don’t want to leave the Valley, but they can’t afford the raised rent, and they can’t find anywhere here.” She added that most of them have jobs in Sonoma, and many have children in school here.
The agencies that might help are in Santa Rosa and overloaded; Catholic Charities, for instance, has a three-month waiting list for places they can help people rent. All affordable housing here in the Valley has waiting lists. Everyday people try to find out how to get into the MidPen affordable housing project slated to be built on Sonoma Highway next to Sonoma Charter School. But MidPen will not even break ground till next March, estimating a September to December 2016 for a move-in date.
MidPen will accept applications next spring and hold a lottery in June 2016. The company’s website states that “we commonly receive 1000 applications per 50 homes available.”
Kimberly Buchanan of Sonoma Management confirmed that as a result of higher rents, people are being forced to move as far as Vallejo, Cordelia, Fairfield. And beyond. “It is really a sad situation, with lots of people looking and there’s nowhere for them.” She added, “Of course owners want to maximize their investment.”
The renters see it differently. “Us Sonomans who’ve been living here so long are being forced out,” commented one Latina, a longtime Springs resident. Her rent had risen from $1,350 to $1,600 over six years, but then it was bumped $200 last summer, forcing her and her family into a smaller place which they rent for $1,400. She added that after some improvements the old place is being rented for $2,300.
Less fortunate was a friend. Raised in the Valley, this young woman was paying $1,250 on the one-bedroom where her family of four lived in Glen Ellen. Notified of a big hike in the rent, she looked for six months, but finally moved to Santa Rosa. She lost her community and the network of support she had from her mother and sister still in the Valley. Her 12-year old son is suffering the loss of his school and the friends he grew up with. The two-bedroom apartment she took on the east side of Santa Rosa costs her $1,450.
Alex Yankee, rental agent with Woodfield Properties, told The Sun that his experience confirms the picture. He has seen a huge spike in rents in the Valley over the last nine months. He sums it all up, saying the rent for an “average” family home is $2,000 – $2,200, and that’s “over the threshold for a working family in the Valley.”
