Sonoma County activists to lobby for rent control, public transit

More than 400 people packed the auditorium at Santa Rosa’s Glaser Center on Sunday for a political rally organized, in part, to draw attention to the plight of residents being priced out of the area due to the high cost of living.

“Families are facing crises,” said Omar Medina, president of the North Bay Organizing Project, which hosted the two-hour event establishing the activist group’s lobbying priorities for the next year - increasing access to housing, education and public transportation.

“Rents are out of control, we have a culturally disconnected public education curriculum, and transportation is out of reach for so many,” Medina said.

The event featured music from Elsie Allen High School’s marching band and a brief theater show from one man who, through political satire, sought to draw renewed attention to recent high-profile rent spikes in Healdsburg and substandard housing issues in a Santa Rosa apartment complex that forced nine families from their homes earlier this year.

At one point, the audience sang along with another band, echoing the verse: “Wake up Sonoma County, what do you want to be? A playground for the wealthy or a home for you and me?”

Though light-hearted, the event - now in its fifth year - also served as a call to action. North Bay Organizing Project activists told hundreds of people to contact their elected representatives on the Santa Rosa City Council and the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors to convince them to add more affordable housing and enact so-called rent stabilization policies, including rent control ?and “just cause” eviction laws.

Rents have increased about 30 percent in three years in Sonoma County, and vacancy rates are hovering between 1 and 3 percent.

Some members of the group re-enacted a recent controversial Santa Rosa City Council vote to spend $75,000 on a study of possible solutions to the city’s affordable housing crisis, including rent control. Sonoma County real estate groups staunchly oppose the idea.

Marilyn Milligan, who lives in Healdsburg, said she came to the group’s meeting Sunday because she wanted to help people who are being displaced due to skyrocketing rents. Earlier this year, the mostly low-income tenants of an apartment complex in Healdsburg were given eviction notices after the owner decided to renovate the property and raise rents.

“Just look at what’s happening in Healdsburg,” Milligan said. “So many people are being forced to leave.”

Organizers and event attendees argued that Sonoma County is becoming more aligned politically and economically with other places in the Bay Area where similar policies on housing exist, due to shifting demographics and because the housing squeeze is being felt throughout the region.

Dawn Phillips, from the Oakland-based housing nonprofit Causa Justa, said during an address to the crowd that housing problems are no longer concentrated in San Francisco and Oakland.

She said hard-won housing policies in those cities, such as rent control and tighter eviction rules, are percolating into Sonoma County.

“It’s changing because of all of you,” she told the audience.

Activists at the meeting said they also intend to push for expanding Sonoma County’s free transit program, which expires ?at the end of December. ?Supervisors last year adopted a pilot program allowing college students and veterans to ride Sonoma County Transit free of charge.

“We’re pushing to expand it for all students, including K through 12 ... it’s so important to create those public transit habits at a young age,” Medina said. “It will also open up opportunities for students who rely on public transit and help increase ridership, which can help establish more public transportation routes.”

Milton Contreras Medina, a student at Roseland Collegiate Prep and member of the activist group’s Latino Student Congress, and Sonoma State University senior Pamela Wentzel also pressed for extending the program to all students.

“This is an investment in our community and our future,” Wentzel said. “Public transportation has the potential to increase job growth, help people get an education and medical care ... and reduce pollutants.”

The message gained traction from at least two supervisors who attended Sunday’s event.

“The thought that a student would not be able to get to school because they could not afford a bus pass is outrageous to me,” ?Supervisor Shirlee Zane told the crowd, which erupted in cheers and applause. “For a policymaker to say ‘We care about education, we care about the economy, we care about jobs,’ but not to put money towards getting students to school is just simply hypocrisy.”

Zane and Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Susan Gorin, who also attended, expressed interest in extending the program next year. Making rides free for all students could be more cumbersome, Gorin said.

“It’s inspiring to see our transit ridership increasing ... expanding the program would be terrific if we could,” Gorin said. “But it’s a much bigger ask for Santa Rosa.”

Supervisors are expected to take up the matter next month.

You can reach Staff Writer Angela Hart at 526-8503 or angela.hart@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ahartreports.