State of the County Address – part two

Susan Gorin delivered her“State of the County”to the Board of Supervisors on January 22.

All roads lead to home and in Sonoma County; it is time to address the issue of affordable housing, a top priority for the Board of Supervisors in the coming year.

In 2014, the county provided $24 million in rental assistance to families, veterans, disabled and the elderly.  These funds not only help families remain in a stable home, they also provide a direct economic injection of millions of dollars into our community.

While home prices are rising, I hear from many constituents that they are very worried about their ability to remain in Sonoma County when the rental inventory is far too low to meet current or future demands. In the past year, rents have increased an average of 30 percent in Sonoma County – some as high as 50 percent.

In 2015, we will tackle this issue as a Board and a community.

Housing is an economic imperative as much as an issue of compassion. Without affordable housing, there is no workforce to pour our wine, teach our children, farm our fields, staff our tech divisions, and repair our roads.  And this is not even accounting for the loss of talents and culture that only a diverse population can provide.

I am thrilled to note that Midland Peninsula Housing will break ground on a 100-unit development in the Springs area. But we must do more. When we talk about housing, we also have to address homelessness. In 2014, Sonoma County took important steps to address homelessness in ways that are compassionate and proactive. We formed the Homeless Outreach Services Team (HOST) pilot project and initiated a Safe Parking Program – both efforts the result of innovative partnerships of County departments, agencies, and community based organizations.

In 2015, we will continue on the issue of homelessness while addressing mental health and substance abuse behaviors in this county.  Any attempt to mitigate homelessness without addressing these challenges will be an exercise in futility.

Addressing inequities

Using innovation and collaboration, here in Sonoma County, we are investing in our future in ways that will mitigate systemic inequities in health, income, and education. Or, in simpler terms, we are raising the playing field. Not leveling, but raising.

Without evidence, we move in the dark.  In 2014, this changed when we commissioned A Portrait of Sonoma County. For the first time, we have a data map of our 99 census tracts that lights the pathway to direct our resources towards the greatest promise of future rewards. The Portrait, in short, is a game changer for us.  The evidence graphically showed that we are a bifurcated county of have and have nots, often residing within minutes of each other, but living worlds apart in terms of education, health, and work.

Addressing poverty and income inequality, highlighted in the Portrait, continues to be a focus of the Board’s efforts.  This includes legislative advocacy for a state earned income tax credit and minimum wage increase, targeted investments in areas identified by the Portrait, and through the consideration of a County living wage ordinance.

Education

Education is the number one predictor of health in later years.  We know this.  And the development of an educated workforce also ensures our economic viability for decades to come. Along with our partners, we are addressing educational inequities beginning with a focus on Universal Preschool to ensure that every child is prepared to enter the school system and succeed.

We are at the table with business leaders and educators to prepare students for the future through Career Technical Education. We are investing in education equity programs, such as 10,000 Degrees, which offers support to students to help them enter and graduate from college.

Community engagement

Other important collaborations take place in our neighborhoods with grants to fund Safe Routes to Schools, community planning, leadership empowerment and healthy food education, all using the Portrait of Sonoma to identify our disadvantaged neighborhoods.

One example is the Moorland Healthy Neighborhood Planning Initiative was formed with neighborhood residents and community partners, and we continue to work with the City of Santa Rosa on annexation of areas of South West Santa Rosa.

In 2014, the Board adopted a framework aimed at creating a culture of community engagement.  We saw a concerted effort at all levels of County government to engage more frequently and authentically with the public.  This year, the Board will be presented with the recommendations of the Community and Local Law Enforcement Task Force, and we look forward to working collaboratively with the community, Task Force members, our Sheriff’s Office, District Attorney, and other criminal justice partners on efforts designed to make our community safer.

Next generations

I want to challenge all of us to engage our future generations and tap into their talents.

We need to prepare those adorable kids for a world we may not even recognize.  We need to ensure our children are ready for jobs that do not yet exist; for societal pressures we haven’t yet imagined; for opportunities that will transform us if we are prepared.

Think about it.  What did you worry about in 1995? My guess is it wasn’t how to take a great selfie or what your teenager was doing on Instagram.  You may not have imagined needing a social media manager or carrying a computer in your pocket. The first round of “Digital Natives” were just being born, and have never known a world without instant access to information.

Think of the next generations as incoming waves. We have a choice: to ride or to run. I think we need to harness this power.  They are a generation marked by the tragedy of Columbine, the corruption of Enron, the horror of 9/11, the cost of war, the force of Hurricane Katrina, the tenacious grip of the Great Recession, and the burden of college debt.

And yet, it is remarkable that they share an optimistic outlook – nearly 50 percent report they “believe the country is on the road to its best years.”

Maybe this optimism stems from growing up in a period of unprecedented civic equality; the pervasive influence of social media; environmentalism as the new normal; and the proliferation of a sharing economy.  For this generation, innovation is the rule.

Eric Liu, former speechwriter for President Clinton and founder of Citizen’s University said: “Heroes are what happens when a moment calls forth people well prepared by institutions.”

Let’s pull forth community heroes by preparing them through education and empowerment. We have both an opportunity and an obligation to engage this group and harness their talents, their innovative spirits, their commitment to service.  They are here and there are waves of them behind, queuing up to inherit this land.

The payoff? We will fulfill our promise that “the best is yet to come.” We will lay the “foundation for the future” for a new generation of Sonoma County residents to live, work, and play in a community that is not only prepared for the future, but also took the risk to shape it.

Read part one at: http://news.sonomaportal.com/2015/02/09/gorins-state-of-the-county-address/