Marin is considering a host of measures to address the county’s growing affordable housing shortage as rents and home prices continue to skyrocket.
The county hosted a workshop to discuss ways to address the problem on Tuesday, focusing on three general strategies: turning existing housing into affordable housing, new construction such as second units, and tenant’s rights including rent stabilization—which limits rent increases—and requiring just cause for evictions.
County staffers painted a bleak picture in a memo prepared before the workshop. The average price of a rental in Marin in 2005 was $1,478 a month. This past June, the average was $2,465—an increase of about 66 percent. To meet the conventional standard of affordability, often defined as spending less than 30 percent of income on rent, a household needs to make almost $100,000 a year. To buy a home requires an income of at least $200,000.
Thirty-seven percent of responders to a county-sponsored survey of renters and landlords this past spring said their rent had risen by at least $100 a month in the past year, and 59 percent said they were planning to move out because of the cost of rent. Many respondents also said they have already been forced to move because rents rose so high and so quickly. Many teachers and civil servants said they struggled or simply could not afford to buy homes or rent in Marin.
Planners came up with a host of theoretical ways that the county could address the problem. For example, ideas for converting existing housing into affordable housing include buying up houses at market rate value, offering landlords incentives to accept Section 8 vouchers by committing to help pay for repairs or rent lost if the unit goes vacant. Planners also suggested adopting a program implemented in Napa County, which offers assistance—such as contributing a down payment—to help some people who work in Marin buy a home.
One Legal Aid of Marin employee called for increased tenants rights during public testimony, saying that there were few ways to help clients without protections. “Without laws…we can’t do our jobs effectively,” she said.
But many solutions come with big problems. Buying up market-rate houses or offering incentives to landlords are pricey solutions. A county fund for affordable housing projects currently has about $5 million—not much given that the average price of a home in Marin is about $1 million.
Rent stabilization is often unpopular with landlords, and some supervisors questioned whether it truly had worked well in places like San Francisco or would be appropriate in Marin.
Some supervisors expressed particular interest in the Napa-based program or further promoting “junior second units,” independent rentable units within existing homes that may not have a full kitchen. But everyone appeared to agree that no single solution would suffice and that the county must pursue more than one ordinance or program.
The county plans to hold more workshops—perhaps in the evening and on the weekend—to attract more people and input on possible new regulations.
Marshall resident Ingrid Noyes, who spoke during the workshop’s public testimony, commended the county for hosting the meeting but wondered about specifics regarding some of the proposals.
She also felt that renters were not respected the way homeowners are. “Renters are not regarded as people whose lives matter,” she said.
Some solutions, such as Section 8 incentives, a second unit amnesty program or promoting the junior second units, could help those in West Marin. Yet rent stabilization would not apply to single unit rentals, which compose much of the housing stock in West Marin.
Regulation of short-term vacation rentals was not proposed by the county, though it was brought up during public comments by residents of Bolinas and Marshall, as well as representatives from the Community Land Trust of West Marin and the Bolinas Community Land Trust.
“It is so depressing to drive down your road and know no one is living there,” said Melinda Stone, of Bolinas. She said she didn’t want a complete ban on short-term vacation rentals but that some ordinance limiting them would be welcome.
A Marshall resident noted many of her neighbors don’t live there full-time, a fact that she illustrated by describing an alarm that once went off at a nearby property for days since no one was there to attend to it.
During a phone interview, Supervisor Steve Kinsey said that current regulations for the county’s coastal zone do not allow for regulating short-term vacation rentals. But the county’s newest version of its Local Coastal Program—which will be evaluated by the California Coastal Commission in coming months—includes language that would allow the county to impose some restrictions.
The 13-member commission has denied such requests from other local governments in the past, in large part because it is reluctant to undermine coastal access. But he said the commission has approved a few restrictions in other coastal programs. In Santa Cruz, some neighborhoods have a cap on the percentage of residential homes that can be turned into short-term vacation rentals.
“Stopping the proliferation and bringing it back to a balanced level is what my goal would be,” Supervisor Kinsey said. “The idea of getting rid of them altogether is not realistic.”
In stark comments made at the conclusion of the workshop, he emphasized that there is only so much the county can do to address the dearth of affordable housing and the related struggles of low and middle income residents,
“This is an economic crisis brought on by the aggregation of wealth at the top and the lack of the transfer of wealth through our communities,” Supervisor Kinsey said. “It’s showing up as a housing challenge, but it’s really the fundamental problem that we have in our global capitalist economy. So we’re left with a handful of tools to try to fix what is actually a much larger, broken problem…We’re fighting against that tide.”