What housing crisis?

A “housing crisis” has been declared for all of Sonoma County by elected officials, affordable housing advocates and by the home building and construction industry. Rents and raw building costs have never been higher. Vacancy rates for rentals are almost zero and new housing construction is years behind the actual demand, these leaders tell us.
We hate to be the naysayer, but Sonoma County does not have a housing problem. The real problem is much worse than that. Sonoma County has an income problem. Besides paying the monthly rent or mortgage, more than a third of all households here can’t pay their food, childcare or health bills either. That’s more money than one in every three households can afford. That’s more than two-thirds of all single mothers can afford. That’s more than almost 70 percent of the elderly can afford.
That’s not just a housing crisis. That’s a food problem and a health problem. That’s an employment problem and an inequality problem.
The housing shortage is easy to see but the income problem is hidden behind many walls, isolated in specific neighborhoods and masked by the high-profile success of our wine, tourism and technology riches.
The housing crisis now making newspaper headlines will be a complex problem to solve. And, we are encouraged that so many elected officials and others want to try. Even the broad dialogue we’re having right now is doing some good. Already the talk is beginning to include wages, education, food security, elder support and lack of childcare.
Sonoma County’s housing crisis has been defined by a shortage of recent construction due to the past recession. The loss of redevelopment agency and other government affordable housing programs is blamed, too. Gentrification and landlord profit motives have been questioned.
These are real factors, but they would not exist if more people in Sonoma County earned better paychecks or had the proper education to secure better jobs.
According to the Sonoma County Community Development Commission, 83 percent of all households spend more than 45 percent of their total income on housing. Almost one-third (28 percent) of these households are defined as “house burdened” by the report.
Is this a housing problem or an income problem? Two parents, working full-time jobs earn a median income of $47,751. This average family lives above the Federal Poverty Line but is still well short of meeting a basic needs budget of $58,281, as defined by a new study just released by the United Ways of California.
Also hidden behind walls are 21,000 households in Sonoma County considered “overcrowded” by the county’s report. Assistance, like food stamps and other government help, is based on the Federal Poverty Line figures. But adjusting the poverty line will never be enough. While we all work to solve the housing crisis we should also work to reduce or eliminate the need for government assistance, hand-outs, rent moratoriums and any other artifical economic measures.
The real answers to making housing and Sonoma County’s cost of living more affordable is to build a sustainable economy for all people. Every job should include a dignified wage and a prospect for expanded opportunities and achievement.
Affordable housing requires a $15 per hour job. All local governments — including the Board of Supervisors — should adopt this dignified wage ordinance right away.
All our local cities, including Cloverdale, Healdsburg, Windsor and Sebastopol, need to take immediate inventory of their housing costs, availability and public policies. We have some catching up to do since the last recession hit and the local redevelopment agencies went away.
The task force work convened by the county supervisors should work hard and be joined by the cities. We need to build more housing and we need to build better jobs.
— Rollie Atkinson