The nonprofit Generation Housing Sonoma County, a Santa Rosa-based local affordable housing advocacy group*,sent the commission a letter on Dec. 23 expressing its “strongest support for the immediate approval” of the project on Asti Road, north of Railroad Avenue, in Cloverdale, which includes farmworker housing.
It pointed to “inherent racism” in some of the remarks made by project opponents, as well as commissioners at the last hearing, Nov. 2, on the proposal.
“We cannot ignore the inherent racism apparent in some of the stated opposition to this project,” the letter continued. “While we will not give the specific comments any additional airtime by repeating them here, multiple racially charged comments — both explicit and implicit — were made by planning commissioners and the public alike during the … meeting. Allowing explicit racism, or even unconscious bias, to drive housing project decisions only perpetuates racism in our communities and strengthens the structural racism that persists in our housing policies and systems. We cannot stand for this.”
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