Golis: Housing crisis: Still looking for answers

Winter is coming, and if long-term forecasts prove accurate, we can expect wet weather. On cold, rainy days and nights, thousands of people in Sonoma County will be left to find shelter where they can.

With what Santa Rosa city analysts call 'near zero vacancy rates' and rents that have increased by more than 30 percent in three years, more working people are being shoved into the ranks of the homeless.

Meanwhile, families who still have a place to live find themselves with less to spend on food, health care and clothing. We talk a lot about wanting the next generation to find success, but what happens to children who don't have three meals a day, health care when they're sick or warm clothing on a chilly day?

For almost a year, community leaders have been searching for solutions. Healdsburg last week hired a new staff person whose job will be to promote affordable housing projects. The Board of Supervisors voted to redirect $2.5 million in federal housing funds, using the money to create more shelters for the homeless.

But these worthy efforts only re-affirm the intractability of the issue. Every idea seems to arrive packaged with its own counter-argument. Rent control? It would remove the incentive to build new housing. A reduction in building fees? It would leave cities with even less money to maintain streets and other public facilities. New construction? Every big and small proposal for new housing seems to find opposition from a neighborhood or environmental group.

Other California coastal regions are also struggling to figure out a way to provide housing for the people who do the work of their community. Last week, the Marin County Board of Supervisors vowed to reboot efforts to promote affordable housing, acknowledging that previous efforts haven't worked.

A lack of affordable housing in Marin is nothing new, of course. Once upon a time, the subdivisions of Petaluma and Rohnert Park were full of people who worked in Marin but couldn't afford to live there.

The Marin newspaper described last week's meeting thusly: 'A workshop on housing drew a full house of advocates to county board chambers Tuesday, and like so many similar sessions over the years, there were plenty of proposals from an animated crowd, a bit of hand-wringing about elusive solutions, and promises of more meetings to continue the conversation.'

As happens, the Santa Rosa City Council this week is scheduled to convene the first of two study sessions on affordable housing. (2 p.m. Tuesday in the City Council chamber.) Almost nine months have passed since the council declared its intention to make affordable housing a priority.

The delay seems to be less about procrastination and more about the absence of obvious solutions. This remains a tough issue, made worse by a job market in which many new jobs pay less than the jobs created in the telecom boom of 25 years ago.

Many of those tech jobs moved overseas - to be replaced by employment in service industries. People trying to solve the housing crisis talk about the paucity of 'head-of-household jobs' — meaning jobs that pay enough to keep up with the local cost of living.

The staff report prepared for Tuesday afternoon's study session notes that recent job growth has been concentrated in retail, restaurant and lodging industries - and approximately 80 percent of those households earn less than $40,000 a year, which is less than half of the average median income in the city. Measured against this housing market, households with incomes below $40,000 are officially classified as 'very low income.'

Left to swim against the tide of market changes, it's not easy for local government to suspend the law of supply and demand, or to provide housing to people when none exists.

While local government scrambles to find remedies, employers will be obliged to think about what will be necessary to maintain a reliable work force. Some will decide to provide direct support for housing. Others will identify the need to evaluate whether wages are keeping up with the cost of living.

The rest of us need to talk about how to balance our desire to keep our communities as they are with the need to provide housing for the people we depend on every day — nurses, shop clerks, teachers, restaurant workers and more.

Mindful of what could be ahead, the Board of Supervisors last week also approved a winter weather response plan. With the seasons changing, it's vital that local agencies develop emergency plans for what could be a long, wet winter. Still, emergency plans remain what they are — a stopgap response to an intractable problem.

While government programs promise to 'end homelessness,' communities understand that this is not an area in which miracles happen.

But we can do better. Doing nothing when people can't find a place to live would be both unconscionable and harmful to the well-being of this place we call home.

Pete Golis is a columnist for The Press Democrat. Email him at golispd@gmail.com.