About the Report
Homes for A Sustainable Sonoma: Strategic Recommendations for Our Community is the blueprint for answering the Housing Declaration’s call to action. The report is by Sonoma Valley Collaborative (formerly Sustainable Sonoma), a forum of community leaders from a wide range of sectors across Sonoma Valley, finding solutions and taking action to address our community’s biggest challenges.
The 50 page report is the result of Sonoma Valley Collaborative’s community-wide listening process in 2018, a cross-sector exploration of housing issues in 2019, detailed input on recommended actions from several housing experts in late 2019, and Sonoma Valley Collaborative’s crisis response activities in 2020.
Its geographic scope is the entire Sonoma Valley basin, including the hills that frame the valley bottom, from the Napa-Sonoma ridgeline to Sonoma Mountain, and from north of Kenwood to south of Schellville.
To reach the vision articulated in the Housing Declaration, we in Sonoma Valley need to…
Strengthen public will for housing affordability
Help people keep their existing affordable homes
Build new homes that embody the principles of the Sustainable Sonoma Housing Declaration
…and we can do it if we pull together.
Contact us if you would like more information or a presentation.
“Sustainable Sonoma has done the hard work of sleuthing out the most important steps for housing affordability in Sonoma Valley. If Sustainable Sonoma can keep on uniting the Valley’s different interest groups, then the County’s decisions about the future of Eldridge and the County Housing Element will be better for it.”
“Sustainable Sonoma’s “Homes for a Sustainable Sonoma Valley” report is a powerful work of consensus-building leadership and provides tangible solutions for the region’s housing challenges. Generation Housing works across sectors and across the county to advocate for more, more diverse, and more affordable housing. Gen H is eager to partner with Sustainable Sonoma to help bring these recommendations to life.”
“The development of housing is critical the the future of Sonoma. With the passage of Measure W, voters sent a clear message to the city that they want future housing projects to be denser, taller, and different to those of the past. I’m so glad to have Sustainable Sonoma to support these future projects and building the coalition we’ll need to create the Sonoma of the future.”
“Year after year, when La Luz surveys Sonoma Valley’s Latino community needs, we find that the cost of housing is the biggest challenge families face. So many families struggle, face impossible choices, or just move away. We need better approaches for housing our community members. La Luz is grateful and proud to be part of Sustainable Sonoma and this set of pathways for making a more inclusive community.”
“Greenbelt Alliance is proud to partner with Sustainable Sonoma to launch a community vision for more affordable housing in Sonoma Valley,” said Teri Shore, 30-year Sonoma Valley resident and Advocacy Director for Greenbelt Alliance. “This is a model for how to work together to create thriving, resilient neighborhoods and housing choices for people around the Bay Area. We can do this while protecting our precious open spaces and farmlands for generations to come.”