How Sonoma Valley can improve housing affordability

The presentation will include the announcement of a new name for the collaborative, which is currently known as Sustainable Sonoma. 

Project Director Caitlin Cornwall will showcase the coalition’s expert-informed report, Homes for A Sustainable Sonoma: Strategic Recommendations for Our Community, published earlier this year.

The recommendations identify time-sensitive windows of opportunity, the most important strategies for nonprofits and donors to focus on, and the most important strategies for government and advocates to focus on.

Two guest speakers will showcase critical partnerships and tools that can help Sonoma Valley retain its community members who continue to be priced out of the Valley. 

Devika Goetschius, Executive Director of Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County, will describe how community land trusts create homeownership opportunities for residents who cannot otherwise afford it. The Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County has created homeownership for 135 workforce families throughout Sonoma County. There are 22 homes under construction and 87 in the planning stages across the County.

Jen Klose, Executive Director of Generation Housing, will describe their campaigns to increase political and community will to enact and implement pro-housing policies at the state and local level, engage with the local Housing Element revisions, support specific projects, and innovate financing and construction solutions. 

Sustainable Sonoma is partnering with Generation Housing on #WeAreGenH, a County-wide public will-building campaign in support of housing affordability focused on core community members, such as teachers, farmers, nurses, families, and servers. The public can participate in this campaign, for example by putting up a sign, by going to WeAreGenH.org.

Sustainable Sonoma’s efforts so far have put Sonoma Valley on the map as a place wanting to change its housing trajectory for the better, Cornwall said. This puts Sonoma Valley in a great position to leverage the expertise and resources of others, marry those with our local passion, knowledge, and connections, and create a future here where secure, affordable homes make our community an even better place to live, work, and grow up.

The coalition, a project of Sonoma Ecology Center currently named Sustainable Sonoma, will announce at the meeting a new name that better describes its core functions. These include finding solutions to complex community problems that promote balance among environment, economy, and equity, and helping to facilitate diplomacy across key sectors within the community, linking together organizations and leaders to solve complex community problems.

For more information on the event, visit  http://sustainablesonoma.net/homesevent. To attend, RSVP to [email protected].

Homes for a Sustainable Sonoma Valley: Strategic Recommendations for Our Community