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Greenbelt Alliance In the News

July 1, 2002

Housing grades: North Bay gets mixed marks on housing report card

Editorial

About three-quarters of the cities and counties around the Bay Area are not doing enough to deal with the extreme shortage of affordable housing, housing advocates concluded in a report released last week.

Under state law, local governments were required to update their housing elements by the end of last year to make it clear how they were providing for needed housing. But the joint report by the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California and Greenbelt Alliance found that nearly a third of the cities in the greater Bay Area had not released even a draft of the housing element by this spring.

The contents of housing elements were among the things the housing groups considered in doing a city-by-city evaluation of housing efforts.

The grades for Sonoma County were mixed. Petaluma made the honor roll for, among other things, meeting 81 percent of its affordable housing needs between 1988 and 1998.

Sonoma County received a "Good" rating while the city of Santa Rosa received an "F." While we support the need of pressuring communities to do more to address the housing crisis, we question these last two grades.

First, it appears Sonoma County was given a high ranking primarily because of what's contained in that housing element approved by the state in January. But it's important to note that this was achieved only after 10 years of pressure from housing advocates and the courts. Prior to that, the county had not had a certified housing element since 1989.

At the same time Santa Rosa received an "F" even as city officials are evaluating new measures to step up the city's housing programs. It's not clear whether all of the measures contained in the city's recently approved housing element -- which has not been sent to the state for approval -- were evaluated. Still, it's clear that what brought down Santa Rosa's grade was the amount of land it has zoned for multiple-family housing -- a criticism we've made ourselves.

That aside, the primary benefit of this report is the opportunity to see what cities are doing right in regards to dealing with the housing shortage, not just what they're doing wrong. For that reason, it should be required reading for all government officials.

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