The Board of Supervisors wants to be prepared if voters approve a massive affordable housing bond in November that could result in a windfall for nine Bay Area counties as they struggle to deal with the statewide housing crisis.

On Tuesday, they agreed to hire a new planner to begin mapping out a plan for how to spend Marin’s share of a potential $10 billion to $20 billion and handle related housing matters.

The bond being prepared by the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority must clear some steep hurdles to succeed. It needs a two-thirds vote to pass, unless voters approve an accompanying ballot measure that would reduce that threshold to 55 percent—still a high bar to clear.

But if it is approved, the county could receive from $350 million to $700 million for the preservation and construction of affordable housing, with at least 71 percent of the money dedicated to low- or very-low income housing. The county would be expected to submit a plan to BAHFA by the beginning of next year outlining its plans for spending the money.

“If approved by the voters, this would bring significant funding to our cities, towns and county to address our needs for affordable housing and serve people who are currently experiencing homelessness,” Leelee Thomas, a county housing specialist, told the board.

On a 5-0 vote, the supervisors approved $450,000 to add a full-time planning staffer to work on the bond and other affordable housing issues for two years. 

Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters said there are advantages to taking a regional approach to housing. 

“I think a nine-county effort is a stronger one,” she said. “I’m not sure we would pass a housing bond in Marin County alone. I think we’re better making a collective effort, learning best practices and working closely with our cities to get this done.”

Before they make any spending decisions, county planners want to conduct extensive outreach to assess community priorities. “We want to make sure that we’ve had a conversation about how to use the funds so that people are informed when deciding whether or not to vote for this ballot measure,” Ms. Thomas told the Light.

In addition to meeting with local officials and residents, the county will reach out to West Marin workers who commute from outside the county because they can’t afford to live here. 

“We’re not going to make these decisions on our own,” Ms. Thomas said. “We’re coming to people in need of housing and people who build housing to ask them about their priorities and the best way to accomplish them.”

The county has already commissioned a survey on the housing needs of farmworkers and other low-wage workers in West Marin. That study, which the county expects to release later this spring, has involved extensive interviews with people whose views on housing needs will be important in devising plans for the BAHFA bond, Ms. Thomas said.

According to a staff analysis conducted last year, 79 percent of West Marin workers commute from outside the community, compared to 63 percent elsewhere in the county. Nearly 48 percent of workers in the coastal zone earn less than $40,000 a year and the proportion of people spending more than half their income on housing increased from 19 percent to 23 percent between 2010 and 2022. 

The November ballot measure will go before voters in the nine counties that make up the Association of Bay Area Governments—Marin, San Francisco, Alameda, Napa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Contra Costa and Sonoma. 

If approved, the funds would be disbursed over 10 years, and the amount each county receives would be pegged to its property values. Each county would get back 80 percent of what it contributes, with the balance going to BAHFA for regional projects.

BAHFA officials are considering a bond of anywhere from $10 billion to $20 billion. If voters approve the lower figure, Marin will receive $352 million, which would be allocated according to guidelines set by BHAFA.

A $10 billion bond would add $12 per $100,000 of assessed value to the tax bill of Marin homeowners. If a $20 billion bond is approved, it would add $19.

At least 52 percent of the bond revenue would be used to produce new housing, and at least 15 percent would be used to preserve existing housing. Five percent would be used to protect tenants from displacement and homelessness, which could include providing a housing stipend for seniors or others on a waitlist for affordable homes. 

County officials would have discretion over how to use 28 percent of the money to address substandard housing or finance infrastructure improvements to support affordable housing construction. No more than 5 percent of the bond could be used to pay for county administration.

Marin has already committed to spending $5 million a year on affordable housing for the next five years. But even if the bond passes, it won’t provide enough to cover all the county’s housing needs, Supervisor Dennis Rodoni said. 

“It’s not enough money to do the job,” he said. “We’ll need to continue to work on local support and local measures that will support housing.”