“Be careful, son,” my father once said to me, “all that glitters is not gold.” With all the electoral politics going on, I am reminded of this again and again.
Our candidates for First District supervisor refuse to recognize the benefits of passing a rent stabilization law with a protection from unjust eviction. They give various reasons, but there are two that stand out: it would not be sufficiently broad, and it is not the solution anyway.
First off, I’d really like to focus on the argument that rent stabilization would be inadequate since it only applies to multi-family buildings constructed prior to 1995. So is the answer to expand it? Make rent stabilization broader? Or is the real issue the fact that the only beneficiaries of rent stabilization would be the poor families and the Latinos who live in places like Valley of the Moon apartments, Mission Terrace and Madrone apartments?
To expand means to wait for a policy change on the state level.
Nevertheless, recent events in Santa Rosa demonstrate that when there is the will and the courage, local policy can be changed. There the city council voted to institute a policy of rent stabilization; furthermore, they put a moratorium on rent increases while staff works to develop the policy.
So what about the argument that rent stabilization isn’t the solution anyway? There are those who attribute the rental crisis to a housing shortage and the impact on the market of vacation rentals. They don’t mention the huge hikes in rent that have occurred. To solve the housing crisis they propose to create more housing by facilitating the permitting process and reducing costs for developers. Of course that is part of the solution, but building more housing will take years and besides, there is no guarantee that when those houses go on the market, the prices or rents will be affordable for the poor.
A recent example: eight families were forced from their homes on a property belonging to Steve Ledson on West Spain St. They were given two months’ notice to vacate so he could proceed with the construction of fancy houses on the site. Those families are responsible tenants who paid their rent on time. They are families with children who go to our local schools. They are people who contribute to our community with their work. They are the mothers who clean the hotels and take care of the children whose families live in the hills, and the fathers who work in the fields. They are members of this community and they cannot find another home in the Valley.
And yet we hear from the candidates, “We have to construct more affordable housing.” But what do we say in the meantime to the children who can’t concentrate in class because they are worried they will have to move to another town, since their family can’t find a home they can afford in Sonoma? The politicians have just enough courage to say what is politically correct to get votes, but they do not seem concerned about the short-term or long-term effects of the housing crisis in our community.
The candidates fight each other for credit as to who was the first to propose, or who has worked hardest on, the low-income apartment project under construction in Fetters Hot Springs. But it makes no difference. That project was initiated many years ago and it still isn’t finished. And I think there will be two thousand applications from hopeful renters of those 60 apartments. And there is no priority given to people currently residing in Sonoma Valley. It is simply ridiculous to think that building more homes is the solution for people in our valley who need somewhere to live – right now.
Politicians will always tell us what we want to hear as long as it is convenient for those who are funding their electoral campaigns. They know that many of the families most affected by the high rents and housing shortage are people who can’t vote – at least, who can’t vote now. But this can change tomorrow. The new generation is waking up. The hypocrisy and falsity of candidates who are sold to the highest bidder will be over the day the working people rise up and say “Basta”.
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