For more than two years, Generation Housing has been working hard in parallel to (1) create a strong pro-housing voice and ethic that shows up to say YES to housing; and (2 ) leverage that community support to ensure that new housing doesn’t get stalled by organized neighborhood opposition (NIMBYism) and to support good local and state prohousing policies and financial solutions. One without the other has little impact, as our policymakers need support for adopting pro-housing policy, and projects that get the benefit of streamlined processes can still be stalled or even halted by NIMBY opposition.
Policy solutions are critical to lowering the barriers to housing development in Sonoma County and the greater Bay Area region. Lagging homebuilding is due in large part to decades of poor policy that has led to structural inequities with resounding intersectional impacts. Sonoma County’s housing policies have resulted in significant segregation by race, ethnicity, and income, leaving most people of color and low wage earners concentrated in low resource areas. This geographical segregation is the primary driver of the race/ethnicity segregation we see in the Sonoma County public schools.
Undoing and replacing those policies requires bold thinking and the willingness to make true systems change — this is challenging work and needs to be done strategically, thoughtfully and collaboratively.
In June 2021, California’s Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) released a new “Prohousing Designation Program” (PHD). The PHD program aims to accelerate housing production, particularly affordable and climate-smart infill multifamily development in alignment with the state’s equity and climate action goals. The state offers a big carrot for the cities and towns who obtain the Prohousing Designation: increased opportunities for millions of dollars of state grants for affordable housing development and sustainable, infill infrastructure.
This program is a tremendous opportunity for new local housing policies that drive real systems change with generational impact for our most vulnerable. Bold prohousing policies can drive increased production of sorely needed, high-quality, affordable and workforce housing. Solving our stubborn housing scarcity and affordability challenges can improve the health and educational outcomes, and economic stability of our community members. Solving our stubborn housing scarcity and affordability challenges can strengthen our local economy, reduce traffic, and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
Throughout the rest of 2022 and in 2023, Generation Housing will be expanding our strategic efforts to include our “Prohousing Initiative.” Through the Prohousing Initiative, the Generation Housing team will create policy “roadmaps” to guide each of the county’s jurisdictions to obtain the Prohousing Designation and draft the model policies needed to advance on that roadmap. Some of this work is the predictable wonky stuff: studying the best practices of, and lessons learned by cities who have made housing progress and the academic research regarding potential solutions. Equally important will be the work to tailor and prioritize these policies based on input from our partners representing those most impacted by the housing crisis and other historically marginalized communities, gathering input through direct community engagement via our partnership with Latino Service Providers, the Youth Promotores de Vivienda.
We will continue to keep you updated on this work with a new Prohousing Update section in our newsletter. And I’d love to hear from you any questions or ideas you have as we continue our work to champion more, more affordable, and more diverse housing in Sonoma County.