Is Sonoma’s Affordable Housing a house of cards?
Reading the report on the City of Sonoma’s affordable housing program, one might easily conclude that everything that can or should be done to provide enough affordable housing has been done, and that plans in place will solve the problem into the future. We, however, conclude that the city’s affordable housing accomplishments are overstated.
If one excludes affordable housing created during the period when Redevelopment Agency funding was provided to the City, little affordable housing has actually been built and it fails to provide housing for the very neediest: our extremely low-income residents.
Even the affordable housing opportunity sites identified in City zoning are vulnerable to commercial uses or market-rate housing. In our opinion, hiding behind the excuse of “no funding” while creating plans on paper that meet regional housing allocations demonstrates a lack of creativity and leadership and any serious intent to create affordable housing.
Redevelopment funding has now been unavailable for nearly five years, yet successive City Councils have done nothing to replace it. Relying on non-profit developers, but claiming to rely on “the development community” to initiate and build affordable housing, City Council knows full well that without financial incentives, subsidies or gifts of land, it simply will not happen. And it hasn’t.
We’ve repeatedly recommended ways to generate revenues to replace lost Redevelopment Funds that have worked in other communities: (1) Raise the Transit Occupancy Tax (paid by tourists) by two percent; (2) increase the Real Estate Transfer Tax; (3) create a non-profit Affordable Housing Trust Fund: and (4) impose commercial development affordable housing fees. All would generate significant affordable housing revenues and none would burden current City residents. Yet, only fees on commercial development are being considered, which alone will not generate much revenue, and it has taken nearly a year just to develop a proposal for discussion.
Only 16 percent of the people who work in the City of Sonoma live in the City, and lack of affordable housing is the main reason. They include not only our firemen, teachers and nurses, but the many decent, hardworking employees who labor in our shops, clean hotel rooms, wash restaurant dishes, maintain yards and otherwise perform the foundational work that is the economic backbone of the City.
While the City dithers, homelessness and evictions increase, and workers and their families living out of their cars can’t even find a place to safely park and sleep for the night. The City is becoming an insulated enclave for tourists and the well-to-do with second-homes rather than a “real” city, and gentrification is spreading well beyond the City limits. Our Valley and its economy will pay a price for this in increased traffic but, more significantly, in human costs — the loss of diversity in our population and the character of our Valley. Diversity creates strong, resilient and genuine communities. For that to happen, affordable housing is critical.
Meeting regional housing goals “on paper” is fine, but without doing more it is nothing but a conceptual House of Cards. If the City can afford to subsidize the Chamber of Commerce and the tourist industry it can also fund affordable housing. Priorities are upside down and we again implore City Council to promptly seize the opportunity to enact measures that generate meaningful affordable housing funds.
–Sun editorial board
One thought on “Is Sonoma’s Affordable Housing a house of cards?”
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Take a look around at all the “Help Wanted” signs . Oil changers , Annex Wine Bar , Filling stations . Even Lucky’s is trying to hire . How can anybody take those jobs and still pay rent here ? I’m thinking this is pretty hopeless .