HOUSING SOLUTIONS FOR SONOMA VALLEY

Sonoma Valley suffers from a severe housing affordability crisis that affects every aspect of our community. The future of our community is at stake. Sonoma Valley Collaborative members have pledge to work together, across boundaries, to increase, improve and preserve housing that is affordable, for people who live or work in the Valley, within already developed areas, to create diverse, safe, complete neighborhoods.

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Sonoma Valley suffers from a severe housing affordability crisis that affects every aspect of our community. The future of our community is at stake. Sonoma Valley Collaborative members have pledge to work together, across boundaries, to increase, improve and preserve housing that is affordable, for people who live or work in the Valley, within already developed areas, to create diverse, safe, complete neighborhoods. 〰️

 
 

As Sonoma Valley struggles with multiple crises, it is critical to stabilize the building blocks of our community: people’s homes, their livelihoods, a positive future for their children. Facing this problem, Sonoma Valley Collaborative crafted its Housing Declaration:

SONOMA VALLEY
HOUSING DECLARATION

 

Sonoma Valley suffers from a severe housing affordability crisis that affects every aspect of our community. The future of our community is at stake.

Sonoma Valley Collaborative members have pledged to work together, across boundaries, to increase, improve and preserve housing that is affordable, for people who live or work in the Valley, within already developed areas, to create diverse, safe, complete neighborhoods.

Working Sonoma Valley Collaborative Housing Platform

Sonoma Valley Collaborative’s Council, staff, and partners have done extensive research to create a housing platform supported by our broad coalition. 

  1. Rescue expiring subsidies for dozens of affordable homes, to keep people housed.

  2. Ease approvals and reduce costs for projects that meet SVC Housing Declaration standards.

  3. Use community housing trusts and other innovative financing structures to reduce the cost of housing.

  4. Physically and visually integrate households of varying incomes and sizes.

  5. Reduce the number of whole-house vacation rentals over time.

  6. Reduce the number of second or empty homes over time.

  7. Provide protection against involuntary displacement of moderate, low, and very low income residents, including mobilehome residents.

  8. Reduce or eliminate parking requirements for new or redeveloped residential projects. At the least, “unbundle” the cost of parking at multi-unit projects so residents can choose whether to pay for parking space.

  9. Improve the mapping of priority areas for new or redeveloped housing, using the best data sources and science, for example related to fire risk and equity.

  10. Increase requirements for inclusionary units up to the maximum economically feasible, and disincentivize off-site units and in-lieu fees. In-lieu fees should be high enough to actually create homes.

  11. Maximize the percentage of planned housing at SDC that is affordable to households making middle incomes and less.

  12. Of new below-market units built, to balance out past patterns of building, more need to be for extremely low, very low, and low income households, and fewer for moderate income households.

  13. Allow and incentivize small multi-unit buildings in all residential zones. 

  14. Allow and incentivize diverse types of homes (mobilehomes, manufactured, prefab, tiny, etc) in all residential zones.

  15. The City of Sonoma should annex land to build 100% affordable homes in the direction of the Springs.

  16. Use thoughtful tenant protections (rent stabilization and just cause eviction policies) to retain low- and middle-income residents, with reasonable protections for small-time, good-behavior landlords.

  17. Provide better services for people who are housing insecure and at risk of homelessness in Sonoma Valley (SVC would not become a direct service provider).

  18. Provide better services and facilities for people who are without shelter (SVC would not become a direct service provider).

A Catalyst for Housing in Sonoma Valley

Sonoma Valley Collaborative is launching a new phase of tackling the housing affordability crisis that threatens Sonoma Valley’s workforce, healthcare and education systems, and nonprofit sector. This effort will set the stage for major interventions to improve housing affordability, such as expanded 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.

In February 2024, Sonoma Valley Catalyst Fund, a fund of Community Foundation Sonoma County, 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 from across the North Bay. The project will provide clarity and actionable direction about the subset of strategies, programs, and partners that, together, will most improve housing affordability in Sonoma Valley.

Housing Advocacy Wins

Sonoma Valley Collaborative invested in two years of intensive advocacy that resulted in pro-housing and pro-tenant policies in the 2023 County and City of Sonoma Housing Elements, which determine how below-market homes are preserved and built for the next eight years.

Sonoma Valley Collaborative’s Council, staff, and partners did extensive research to create a housing platform supported by our broad coalition. We did housing advocacy workshops with people most impacted by the affordability crisis, including youth and Latina parents, resulting in powerful testimonies that moved decision-makers.

Our advocacy with the united voice of the Sonoma Valley Collaborative Council and community members was effective and inspiring. The Housing Element adopted by Sonoma’s City Council in January 2023 is by far the most pro-housing plan ever in the City of Sonoma! Sonoma Valley Collaborative advocated for 23 housing affordability policies, in many cases writing proposed language that the City adopted word-for-word.

Homes for A Sustainable Sonoma: Strategic Recommendations for Our Community

In 2020, Sonoma Valley Collaborative published a 50-page report, Homes for A Sustainable Sonoma: Strategic Recommendations for Our Community, that has served as a blueprint for answering our Sonoma Valley Housing Declaration call to action. The report was 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.

The strategic recommendations in the Homes were report are tailored to Sonoma Valley—its challenges, assets, and particular makeup. Every recommendation in the report meets Sonoma Valley Collaborative’s demanding criteria that it advance all of the following: 1) economic security, 2) equitable well-being for all, and 3) environmental and climate sustainability.

Voices of Sonoma Valley: What People Want Most For Our Community

At 20 listening sessions between March and October 2018, Sonoma Valley Collaborative recorded over 1,600 comments about what Sonoma Valley residents and workers want for the future of their community.

By far the most common opinion expressed is that Sonoma Valley should have more affordable housing of many types and prices. Other common opinions recorded included protecting open space; increasing mobility options such as walking, biking, and public transit; seeing more connection and inclusion across our community; and providing better opportunities for young people.

Sonoma Valley Collaborative used these findings to inform our choice to take action together to solve the housing affordability crisis in Sonoma Valley.