Fifty-one percent of our estimated 61,892 renter households are unable to afford a typical two-bedroom apartment, ranking Sonoma County as one of the least affordable housing markets in the country, according to Out of Reach 2005, from the National Low Income Housing Coalition. A working family of four would need to make $46,040 a year to afford a typical two-bedroom apartment. But half of local renters make less than $44,153, putting decent affordable homes out of reach.

This affects the entire region’s quality of life. People are forced to live in distant subdivisions or in Lake County, commuting hours each day. And more traffic means lost time with families and communities, stretched wallets, a poisoned environment, and disappearing open space as subdivisions pave over our hillsides,.

Sonoma County must provide housing choices so that people can elect where to live and are not forced out of our region. Inclusionary housing can help provide those choices. Cities with inclusionary housing policies require new housing developments to construct a certain percentage of homes affordable to a wider range of incomes, in addition to those at market rates. These below-market rate homes allow people like nurses, teachers, firefighters and retail workers to find quality housing. Local governments have embraced inclusionary housing because it helps create affordable housing without government funding.

Already, 57 Bay Area cities and counties have these policies, including Sonoma County and all nine of its jurisdictions. Sonoma, Sebastopol, and Cotati, for example, require that all new developments include at least 20% below-marketrate housing.

In April the Santa Rosa City Council is revisiting its inclusionary policy to include in lieu fees for mixed use developments, where residential and non-residential uses are combined within a building. Mixed use has been exempt from this requirement. Projects currently in Santa Rosa’s downtown pipeline such as the Mid Rises, the White House site and Railroad Square would be exempt, but indicate that the market for mixed use development has arrived. Supplying welldesigned housing for all income levels in downtowns and near transit will bring great benefit to the entire community.

Condominium conversions are also taking a huge toll on Santa Rosa’s rental market, with condo conversions doubling in just six months as property owners bet on a market where $600,000 buys only a median-priced house. The trend is barely a year old, but already the total represents about 6 percent of the city’s apartments. The impact is enough that city planners turned away several proposals in the past month because too many apartments might be lost. Sonoma County requires that 30% of converted condominiums be affordable to low and very low income households. This is a critical means of ensuring that a percentage of new ownership homes are kept affordable.

Right now, none of the apartments converted to condominiums in Santa Rosa are kept affordable. If Santa Rosa were to include condo conversions and require 20% of new residential development to be affordable, thousands of new affordable homes would be created over the next five years. This would mean homes for people currently without safe and adequate housing choices, for teachers who commute from Mendocino County, and for young professionals who are increasingly relocating because they can’t find homes here. It would be a significant step toward solving the housing crisis and making Sonoma County a better place to live for everyone.

Community support is crucial to get an updated inclusionary housing policy in Santa Rosa that includes mixed use development and condominium conversions. To learn about ways to bring a strong inclusionary housing policy home, contact Sabrina Ross at 707-758-4101.

Denny Rosatti is Co-Director of Sonoma County Conservation Action (SCCA). SCCA’s mission is to better our quality of life in Sonoma County for all generations, through educating and directly engaging the public on local environmental issues and policies using grassroots organizing.

Sabrina Ross is Legislative Advocate for the Accountable Development Coalition. The Accountable Development Coalition (ADC) was founded in 2005 to encourage early community involvement and representation in decisions about development. ADC works to ensure that everyone in our community is well-housed and well-fed, regardless of income.