Announcing a new project that will set the stage for more housing services, protections for residents, and new affordable homes

Sonoma Valley Collaborative is excited to announce a newly funded effort to lay the foundation for major interventions to improve housing affordability in Sonoma Valley, such as housing services; extending expiring housing subsidies; building housing on land owned by governments, faith communities, and nonprofits; and planning and community engagement for multi-parcel redevelopment projects.

Sonoma Valley Catalyst Fund, a fund of the Community Foundation Sonoma County, has granted Sonoma Valley Collaborative $96,200 to lead this project.

The project is a partnership involving City and County staff, Sonoma Valley Collaborative, and housing organizations across the North Bay.

"Catalyst Fund is excited to support this project because it is exactly the kind of new approach our Reimagine Grants program is designed to fund,” said Katherine Fulton, co-chair of Catalyst. “We will actually lose ground against the growing challenges facing Sonoma Valley unless we begin working in new ways.

"This project brings together a new collaboration of North Bay, county and Sonoma City housing leaders to create a map of players and programs to protect Sonoma Valley's current low income renters and affordable housing units, as well as increase the amount of affordable housing. The end result will be more supportive housing services in the valley and more actionable ways to build affordable housing."

The goal of the project is to provide clarity and actionable direction about the subset of strategies, programs, and partners that, together, will most improve housing affordability in Sonoma Valley.

The need for the project:

• Right now, there are nonprofits providing effective services to people on the brink of losing their housing, but they don’t currently operate in Sonoma Valley. What exactly can those programs deliver, which are the best programs, what do they need before they can start operating here, what is the cost?

• Right now, developers of below-market-rate housing see Sonoma Valley as pretty unfriendly to smaller or subsidized cottages, homes, and apartments. What exactly is needed to change that perception? The City and County are working on this, but their resources are limited.

• Right now, a very large bond measure on the November ballot promises much more funding for housing production and services. Sonoma Valley will benefit most from this bond only if we have a number of feasible projects and programs ready to go. Where and what are these best projects and programs?

Sonoma Valley Collaborative is pivoting after two years of intensive advocacy to win pro-housing and pro-tenant policies in the newly revised County and City of Sonoma Housing Elements, which determine how affordable homes are preserved and built for the next eight years. In 2020, Sonoma Valley Collaborative published a report, Homes for A Sustainable Sonoma Valley, identifying urgent paths to pursue, like strengthening public will for housing affordability, helping people keep their existing affordable homes, and building new affordable and missing-middle homes in parts of Sonoma Valley that are already developed.

“Sonoma Valley Collaborative is taking a well planned, highly collaborative approach, which is needed, given that housing affordability is the most expensive, long-term, complex, multi-layered issue Sonoma Valley faces,” says Diana Sanson, Grants Chair of Catalyst.