Following a report illustrating the intensity and scale of West Marin’s workforce housing shortage, a local community foundation is promoting a new fund dedicated to easing the crisis. The West Marin Fund’s housing fund will assist families living in substandard housing or who are at risk of losing their home. Seventy-eight percent of the households surveyed for the report live with issues that would be considered major health and safety violations by the county, ranging from mold and rodents to a lack of heat or drinkable water. “It’s deeply troubling that people have been living in these conditions for so long and have been unable to speak up, particularly in a region that cares about community and equitable housing,” said Sarah Hobson, the organization’s executive director. Ms. Hobson also chairs the Committee for Housing Agricultural Workers and Their Families, which commissioned the housing report, “Growing Together: Advancing Housing Solutions for Workers in West Marin.” The group also includes representatives from the Marin Community Foundation, the Marin County Community Development Agency, Marin Health and Human Services, the National Park Service, the Marin Agricultural Land Trust and the community land trusts serving Point Reyes Station, Bolinas and the San Geronimo Valley. The county recently red tagged 13 dwellings at the Martinelli ranch in Point Reyes Station, and the roughly 35 residents there could soon need new housing if wastewater issues at the ranch are not addressed. Committee members also fear that as many as 180 residents of ranches and dairies in the Point Reyes National Seashore could lose their homes as the result of a lawsuit demanding the end of agriculture in the park. “It’s easy to get discouraged by the many barriers that limit the chances of a quick and easy solution,” Ms. Hobson said in an email to the Light. “Yet we can bring about much-needed change if we align our efforts and center the experience of people who lack dignified housing.” Find more information about the Housing Action Fund at https://wmf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate.