Renters, housing activists search for solutions to skyrocketing Sonoma County rents

“No rent for rats,” participants chanted at last month’s meeting of the North Bay Organizing Project.

The catchy slogan, resounding off the walls of Christ Church United Methodist in east Santa Rosa, reflected a dispute between tenants and property owners of the nearby Bennett Valley Townhomes. But leaders that night also spoke two words more likely to get the attention of both landlords and civic leaders: rent control.

The community organizing group, a collection of churches and other local organizations, has yet to consider what solutions it might propose to relieve a tight rental housing market, a spokesman said. But the group won a pledge from Santa Rosa Councilwoman Julie Combs to talk with its leaders about rent control and other possible strategies for helping low-income renters.

“I’m not convinced it’s the solution,” Combs said last week of rent control. “But I think we should discuss it.”

Combs said she has received more calls in three months than in the two previous years from people displaced because of rent increases, “and they don’t have anywhere to go.”

Besides rent control, the typical approaches to dealing with a tight rental market are basically to build more housing, find ways to share existing homes or watch renters move to cheaper places.

Affordable housing advocates and local governments continue to work to acquire the money needed for new state-subsidized rental projects, including a $100 million allocation in this year’s state budget. But that amount still falls far short of the $1.5 billion that annually had been available for such projects, which are designed for low-income residents, according to the California Housing Partnership Corp. The money dried up with the end of redevelopment agencies, the conclusion of state bond programs and other cutbacks.

In terms of doubling up, Petaluma People Services Center this summer began Share of Sonoma County, a senior home-sharing program for those age 60 or older. The program is designed to link up both homeowners and tenants, as well as those who want to share an apartment.

“I think we’re going to see more of that,” Executive Director Elece Hempel said.

As to moving out, the Bay Area has long seen people relocating to Sonoma County from more expensive locales such as San Francisco and Marin County. Furthermore, in difficult economic times people have left here to find less costly housing to buy or rent.

But this year Linda Hedstrom noticed a new twist. Hedstrom, a former Lake County housing director, said renters are moving up to more affordable Lake County and commuting back into Sonoma County for work.

When the rental market tightened in the past, renters did relocate to Lake County, said Hedstrom, now a project manager for the nonprofit PEP Housing in Petaluma.

“But they weren’t commuters,” she said.