Close to Home: Measure N would create affordable housing

If you live in Santa Rosa, you likely have a friend, a co-worker, a child or another relative who struggles to find affordable housing.

Or you're struggling yourself.

It has become our way of life in this community. The median price of a single-family home is near $700,000. Average rent on a two-bedroom apartment runs more than $25,000 a year. And that's only if you're lucky enough to find a home to buy or a place to rent, because vacancy rates are in the low single digits.

High housing costs aren't new in our city. But their impact and the problem has grown worse in recent years, particularly since last year's fires destroyed more than 3,000 housing units in Santa Rosa alone.

Today, about half of those who rent in Santa Rosa spend more than half of their income on their housing. That's not good for their kids. It's not good for their health. It's not good for our community.

On Nov. 6, we have an opportunity to change this predicament. Measure N, the Santa Rosa Housing Recovery Bond, will build affordable housing for the people who need it most in our city.

Note that we didn't use any ifs, ands or buts in that sentence. Measure N will build affordable housing. Period.

That's why the City Council put it on the ballot with a unanimous vote. That is why it is supported by environmental groups, by business groups and by individuals of all political stripes in our community. This is a ballot measure that will address our city's highest priority with real, impactful action.

Measure N is a bond measure, and it will raise $124 million by increasing the property tax on individual parcels by $29 per $100,000 of assessed value. That's not market value (as in the $700,000 median price), it's assessed value - an average of less than $400,000 in Santa Rosa. That means an addition of about $110 on the average tax bill - less than $10 a month, or 30 cents a day.

Would you be willing to spend $10 a month to help a friend, a co-worker, a child or another relative afford to live in Santa Rosa? Would you give one of those people 30 cents a day to prevent them from being priced out of our community?

Measure N focuses primarily on affordable rental housing. At least 75 percent of the proceeds must be spent to create rentals that are affordable to people making less than 80 percent of the average median household income ($78,550 for a family of four). This would include traditional apartments, single-resident rooms and supportive housing for homeless or mentally ill individuals and others with special needs.

But there's more to it than rentals. Up to 25 percent of Measure N may be used to help fire victims fill their unmet needs as they seek to rebuild, and to provide down-payment assistance for income-eligible first-time homebuyers.

And Measure N is just a start. Based on the experience of other communities that have passed housing bonds, the money made available by Measure N will attract as much as four to five times more in grant money, private equity and state and federal funds. That means Measure N could produce a half-billion dollars or more of affordable housing in Santa Rosa.

That's more than 2,000 units of housing for our neighbors who need it the most.

For comparison, in the past five years only 275 affordable units have been built in Santa Rosa.

Santa Rosa has a housing crisis. Measure N offers a real solution. Your yes vote on Nov. 6 closes the deal.

Chris Coursey is mayor of Santa Rosa, and Tom Schwedhelm is a member of the City Council.

You can send a letter to the editor at letters@pressdemocrat.com