Here’s an example–take dental care. If you spend too much money on rent, this means you have very little (or no) money left over for dental care.

So? Studies show that kids with dental problems miss school twice as much as kids without. Lower attendance leads to lower educational outcomes. And lower educational outcomes leads to lower earnings. And guess what? We’re back where we started.

Take a look at the chart below:

This chart shows you what 30% of someone’s income looks like every month if they make $28,000 to 36,000/year. Look at the column on the far right–that’s what this person has to spend on rent ($800-923/month).

But here’s where it gets tricky: the average median rent for a 1-bedroom apartment in Sonoma County is $1647/month. And that statistic is county-wide. If we were just talking Santa Rosa, that number jumps to $1,838/month. Do you see the issue here?

So what’s at the root of this? A fundamental problem here is the lack of supply. There is simply not enough housing in Sonoma County to safely and reliably house the people who live and work here. That’s what Generation Housing is working on—increasing supply.

But we need your voice to weigh in on what’s happening. Because decisions are being made now about where people are allowed to build, about what gets built new, and what gets repurposed or rezoned.

And the decisions we make now will affect us for decades to come.

Important things are happening.

Click here to get involved.

• End exclusionary zoning.

Why is this important?
Exclusionary zoning laws do exactly that — they exclude. They cluster multifamily homes in certain areas, keeping families from moving into neighborhoods with more resources and opportunities for them and their kids.

Exclusionary Zoning has been a primary driver of community-damaging ethnic and income segregation.

Success is:
Legalizing multifamily dwellings where only single-family homes were once permitted county-wide within two years from campaign launch.

• Prioritize high-resource areas for lower-income housing opportunities.

Why is this important?
Diverse neighborhoods are healthy neighborhoods. We need to make sure that affordable housing is provided across all neighborhoods. Locating affordable housing in only certain neighborhoods creates (or maintains) racial and income segregation.

Success is:
Jurisdiction zoning and planning for high-resource neighborhoods to accommodate a proportional share of affordable housing.

• Build smart: a diversity of homes for all incomes near transit & jobs.

Why is this important?
Building near transit and jobs is good for our health and environment. Prioritizing this type of housing can create more walkable neighborhoods, protect our open spaces, and reduce our climate footprint.

Success is: 
Local jurisdictions revising zoning policies to incentivize development of a diversity of homes, for all income levels, in transit and job rich areas within two years of campaign launch.

• Reduce Time and Expense of Building Housing

Why is this important?
Multifamily housing development is lengthy, complicated, and expensive. It can cost from 400k to 750k to build a single housing unit. The process, even at its fastest, can take several years. Delays not only slow our progress with our goals, but also increase costs, which are ultimately paid for by us — homeowners and renters.

Success is: Adopting policies that streamline approval, reduce project costs and development risk, and simplify the permitting process.