West Marin has a reputation for some of the most beautiful landscapes in the Bay Area, but beyond its rolling hills is an issue often overlooked by visitors: the area’s livability and how it affects the workforce.
It’s no secret that Marin’s prices have skyrocketed in recent years. While jobs in the county increased 15 percent since 2010, housing supply has increased less than 1 percent. Marin also has the highest minority income disparity in California, and around 40 percent of households spend 30 percent or more of their income on housing.
This summer, the Light traveled around West Marin to talk with workers about how the high cost of living affects their lives and outlook, and how the struggle to find housing leaves them feeling unsupported.
Nestled in the San Geronimo Valley is Pump Espresso, where workers who have lived in West Marin all their lives have strong opinions about housing.
Barista and register manager Margot Granville said she’s heard of many people having to move out of West Marin to be able to support themselves. She said kids are having to get jobs at younger ages to help support their own families.
“It is especially important in the valley for kids to work so they can support themselves so their families don’t have to bear the extra burden,” she said.
Kalea Rasmussen has worked as a barista at the shop for three years. “We’ve had trouble here a little bit just keeping the employees,” she said. “My dad’s a single dad and he’s raised four kids here, and I’ve seen it take a huge toll on him,” she said.
For teens especially, competition has increased to have some disposable income that helps them keep up with friends who are better provided for. “When there is so much wealth and you have these friends who never worry about that stuff, it can be really hard, especially when you don’t have a job and you see your friends always have money. It’s hard to see that for some kids,” Kalea said.
Kalea’s sister, Kili’a Kaho’ohanohano, used to work at the Pump but is now in college. She’s realized how it’s much more sustainable to live outside a place as expensive as Marin. “In places like this, it’s hard to find housing unless you have a lot of money or family connections or land that was bought a long time ago,” she said. “It’s pushing out people who have been here generationally.”
Nowhere is more affected by increased housing prices than the town of Bolinas. Elia Haworth, the curator of coastal Marin art and history at the Bolinas Museum, has lived in West Marin since 1973. “There used to be many more places available for people to rent,” she said. “There’s so few now that our teachers, medical staff, volunteer firefighters and the rest of us, it’s just hard to find rental places.”
Ms. Haworth said the town has grown so popular that it’s taking a toll on workers. “Traffic is terrible, parking is horrible. I can certainly say that,” she said. “Sometimes I come down two hours early just to find a parking place. I would say it’s also people who come and use our community and don’t give back anything.”
Up the coast in Point Reyes Station, the burden of housing scarcity is no lighter, said Simon Woodard, a community library specialist at the Point Reyes Library. “Most of my closest friends and my peers out here are not living in situations where there is a lot of security with their homes, so a lot of people I know don’t really say anything like ‘I’m going to live out here for a long time’ because it’s not certain they can,” he said. Most workers he knows live in bigger towns farther out, often commuting over an hour to the coast.
One of the nonprofits that has been working to help with the housing crisis is the Community Land Trust Association of West Marin, which creates and supports affordable homes so people can afford to live near where they work. Pam Dorr, the group’s executive director, has worked and lived in West Marin for less than a year. Even she is not exempt from the problem.
“I want to be part of my community where I work,” she said. “In reality, I think I maybe can’t stay here and work where I want to be because I won’t have the housing I need.”
Ms. Dorr added, “It’s hard to think about owning and having a permanent place, even for myself, who’s very experienced as a housing counselor and helping people qualify for mortgages and helping people understand how to own—it’s hard for even me to own and I do this for a living, so I know firsthand that the pressure affects folks.”
As home prices rise, towns like Point Reyes Station are left with vacant homes that either are not on the rental market or are too pricey for most workers. “This is a place where children that are raised here won’t be able to live here in the future unless we do something different,” Ms. Dorr said.
Colin Howard is a grocery worker at the Palace Market who has lived in town for the past year. He knows various co-workers who have harder living situations. “I know that a lot of people at the store don’t really have a place to live so they are living in their car or living in a van or renting somewhere,” he said.
Farther north is Dillon Beach, a tourist attraction with crowded beaches that occasionally lie under a blanket of fog. Vicki Hoefle, the general manager at the Dillon Beach Resort, has lived and worked in West Marin for eight years.
“People are moving out of the city, so all of these small pockets that used to be hidden away are now where the city dwellers are moving, and because they have capital, because they have disposable income, because they are in a different tax bracket, they can come in and purchase large areas, which makes it impossible for local folks,” she said.
Tourism brings money in, but at the same time it can make it more difficult for families to find homes. “Marin does not support a healthy lifestyle,” Ms. Hoefle said. “I think it’s a lifestyle for the rich and famous, but everyone else working is at the top of the poverty level of income.”
Gillian Reynolds lives in Corte Madera and attends Redwood High School, where she serves on her school newspaper, The Bark.