There is a renter’s affordability crisis facing Sonoma County and Sonoma and judging from the absence of focused action, our government is not adequately responding. Rents have increased 30 percent in the last three years, average county rent is $1,600 per month and the vacancy rate is less than 3 percent. Median home prices exceed $500,000 and Sonoma County is one of the five hottest markets in the country for rentals and home sales.
If rents matched median wages they would be $1,000 per month.
Workers can’t afford to live here. And not just rent is inflated; food, goods, services, gas, you name it, everything is over-priced. Living wages? The central problem affecting rental prices is not supply but greed. The housing market is not serving actual renters, workers or families but is a bonanza for investors looking to cash in at the highest price. Does our government not recognize the need for decisive action here?
The North Bay Leadership Council, a group of big money employers, says the “housing crisis is hurting business expansion and economic growth… removing obstacles to home construction in the Bay Area and New York could boost the U.S. gross domestic product by 9.5 percent”. We must ask, whose gross domestic product will increase? Certainly not that of low-paid renters.
Economic expansion for its own sake runs counter to other county policies valuing sustainability, consuming less and lowering greenhouse gas footprint. We actually need to dial down our economy to make it more sustainable, not expand. The bitter fact is that there is already enormous wealth here in the North Bay, but it’s concentrated in too few hands. Continuing to buy into an unlimited growth model threatens to sink the whole planet. How could the cure for our ills be more of the same? As a region, we don’t need more GDP for the people who already have it all; we need to more equitably share what we already have.
Inequity is not a new dilemma. From riots in the 60s to the recent 99 percent demonstrations, the marginalized majority has attempted to make its voice heard. Who is listening? Where are the local solutions?
We suggest a leveling of the playing field and sharing more to solve our housing, wage and other equity issues. The current unprecedented, unfair equity gap cannot be accepted as the status quo. A simultaneous sustainability and affordability crisis means it does not make sense to keep ramping up the same behaviors that caused all such problems in the first place. Greed must be challenged, not accepted as the status quo.
Our greatest concern is that despite the many suggestions made by the public at meetings (and The Sun) to address income inequality and its effects, nothing changes. Those elected pay lip service to lofty ideals, but take no action. It’s clear that government does not share the values we advocate.
Local groups such as the Sonoma Ecology Center and the Sonoma Valley Fund recognize the seriousness of these affordability and equity issues and have spoken up. Should our elected officials continue to be passive and fail by omission in addressing these salient issues, citizens will have to turn to ballot box initiatives or other grass roots options to address our future.
Holding the reigns of power, our elected officials must be held accountable for their action and non-action. Rest assured, we intend to continue to call them out for their failings.
— The Sun Editorial Board
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