There is a growing awareness that the housing crisis impacts us all.
Our workforce cannot afford to live here. Employers struggle to hire staff. Schools face challenges retaining young teachers. Our children overwhelmingly leave Marin when they finish their schooling. Older residents seeking to downsize have few options. Traffic worsens as more of our workforce commutes from outside of Marin.
The numbers tell the story plainly: There is no reasonable housing available in Marin for households earning less than $65,000 per year, which is more than our median wage. Marin is being hollowed out from within, losing lower-income residents faster than anywhere else in the Bay Area.
Even with the new state housing laws, our rate of housing production is low. We estimate about 200 housing units are under construction and another 330 have been permitted. California officials estimate that we need to permit 14,400 new units by 2031 to meet demand. We are barely replacing the housing units that have been lost due to code violations and tragic events like the recent Canal apartment-building fire in San Rafael, much less reaching our housing goals.
Marin residents understand the need to change. Despite the opposition of a minority, residents voted to rezone Sausalito for more housing. In Fairfax, they voted down a recall of local council members that was built, in part, on accusing them of following state housing laws.
Advocates, educators and employers in Marin have been encouraging efforts to build more housing and to better protect our existing renters. And now we are joining forces to do more. The Marin Environmental Housing Collaborative has announced that we are now Call Marin Home, a new Marin County housing coalition.
It will work together to drive proactive changes to the housing landscape in Marin. Progress to date demonstrates that “business as usual” will not suffice. We will advance policy and budgetary changes to address this crisis via the “three Ps”: new housing production, preservation of existing housing and tenant protections.
Across California, the communities making real progress on housing share one thing in common: They treat the three Ps as complementary tools, not competing priorities. New homes alone won’t stabilize families. Preserving existing affordable units won’t meet future demand. Protecting renters is only effective when paired with more housing options. Marin can only meet this moment by bringing all three strategies together.
This transition to a coalition was not accomplished by MEHC alone; many organizations in Marin have been working for years towards building a housing coalition. Canal Alliance, Community Action Marin, Legal Aid of Marin and North Marin Community Services have worked toward this goal since their success in creating resident protections during the initial waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, the Marin Organizing Committee led the Housing For All Marin coalition to support the proposed affordable housing bond measure. These efforts built the foundation for Call Marin Home.
Now, the Marin Community Foundation has put its considerable weight behind Call Marin Home to create the permanent coalition we need to move forward. MEHC leadership worked over the past year with Canal Alliance, Community Action Marin, Habitat for Humanity, Homeward Bound, Legal Aid of Marin, North Bay Leadership Council and North Marin Community Services to establish the shared mission and structure of the coalition.
This fall, Bolinas Community Land Trust, Eden Housing, the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce, the Stinson Beach Affordable Housing Committee, Two Valleys Community Land Trust and Thompson Dorfman joined our efforts, with more on the way.
The coalition is not limited to institutions. We also welcome individuals to join in the effort, especially those with land use or environmental expertise to offer, as well as those who have experienced the impact of the housing crisis.
The name Call Marin Home comes from the San Rafael Leadership Institute’s Class of 2023 and its inspirational class project, with funding from the Marin Leadership Foundation. Their powerful video, entitled “Call Marin Home,” makes Marin’s housing crisis personal through firsthand accounts of the negative impacts on the local workforce, employers and the communities they serve. This video has been useful as an educational tool.
Marin Environmental Housing Collaborative’s transition to Call Marin Home embodies more than a coalition of housing advocates —it’s an invitation to all Marin to collaborate in this effort. Together we can build a brighter future for Marin. We can call Marin home.
Jenny Silva, of Sausalito, is executive director of the Call Marin Home nonprofit organization.