Affordable Housing Redux

This past Monday evening, the Sonoma City Council and Sonoma Planning Commission held a joint study session to discuss affordable housing. We applaud the effort the city is now making to come to grips with a difficult problem, but it’s been a terribly long time coming.

For well over a year, we at the SUN have been making suggestions about how to jump start the creation of affordable housing, but to no avail. We’ve had neither a phone call or a question from anyone in government about the various ideas we have proffered, but we’ve not given up, and we won’t.

We believe that without sufficient new revenues it will be impossible for the City of Sonoma to help create substantially more affordable housing. The revenues from the Redevelopment Agency were lost years ago, and the city has done nothing to replace them. Not surprisingly, affordable housing projects have mostly fallen by the wayside.

So, once again we will reiterate the suggestions we have made repeatedly:

1. Create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund to which tax-deductible donations can be made by the public, organizations and institutions.
2. Increase the Transient Occupancy Tax by 2% and dedicate that revenue to the creation of affordable housing (land, subsidies or construction).
3. Establish meaningful in-lieu affordable housing impact fees that are assessed on all new development.
4. Delay the processing of any large new commercial projects until the housing impact fees are adopted and implemented.
5. Examine the potential benefits of becoming a Charter City, which would allow for the increase of the Real Estate Transfer Tax (now $.55 per $1,000).

None of this is rocket science. Every one of these ideas have been successfully used by other communities. The city has wasted value able time and lost the opportunity to raise millions of dollars through delaying action on affordable housing. The need for housing is urgent, and it’s now that action needs to be taken.

SUN Editorial Board