Sonoma County housing officials to hire consultant for outreach to minority communities

In the wake of a sobering federal report showing Sonoma County’s policy on housing vouchers for low-income tenants curtailed access to subsidies for racial and ethnic minorities, the county’s Community Development Commission continues its quest to correct course, doubling down on outreach efforts as part of a new initiative aimed at housing equity.

On Wednesday, the department issued a request for proposals seeking a consultant to help the agency craft a required study that examines barriers to housing for protected classes of people.

The effort is slated to assess housing access for low-income Asian and black residents, those with disabilities, and other groups, and is scheduled to take place from October through November.

It would involve canvassing efforts in a handful of neighborhoods, as well as focus groups and other efforts to elicit feedback from underserved populations.

Although the assessment is a regular mandate, officials with the Community Development Commission see this consultant hire, along with a consultant focused exclusively on the Latino community, as important steps in the county’s overarching Equity in Housing Project.

“These consultants are meant to be a springboard to create deeper relationships within our communities (going forward),” said agency spokeswoman Janelle Wetzstein. “Already, we are seeing an improvement in our Latinx relationships from a separate consultant contract we set up prior to this contract.”

Latinx is a gender-neutral term used as an alternative to Latino or Latina when referring to people of Latin American descent.

Sonoma County housing officials in May introduced sweeping changes to the way low-income tenants receive rent subsidies, opting to purge the county’s massive waiting list and instead use a lottery system.

The changes sought to make the county’s voucher system more manageable and responsive, and came in the wake of a scathing federal review that found the county’s local preference policy restricted housing access for racial and ethnic minorities.

The local preference meant local applicants bypassed out-of-county applicants on the waitlist, which had the effect of limiting access for minorities.

Still, just 300 vouchers for rent were handed out each year, meaning whittling down the 26,000-person wait list would have taken an untenable 90 years.

The previous, local-preference policy started in 2007 and was ended in the summer of 2018, officials have said.

The new direction stemmed from a Housing and Urban Development compliance check in May 2018, when agency staffers documented a dozen instances in which the county housing authority flouted federal regulations.

Among the disparities, HUD found that just 4% of Sonoma County’s Section 8 vouchers were held by black people while 31% of applicants were black.

Following the fallout, officials promised better, more strategic outreach to engage Latinos.

And now the county is working to make inroads with other racial and ethnic minorities.

“While the federal government told us we had inequities, they did not specify how to improve those inequities, which makes sense, since it should be our responsibility to respond to the needs of our community,” Wetzstein said.

The new consultant, once selected, is expected to provide a report in December.

You can reach Staff Writer Tyler Silvy at 707-526-8667 or at tyler.silvy@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter ?@tylersilvy.