Housing crisis squeezes Petaluma residents

Rising housing costs due to a lack of available units is pricing many people out of Petaluma.|

Looking for a new home to buy or rent in Petaluma? Be prepared to shell out much more than the asking price or the going rate.

That’s been the experience for Cathy Killinger, who spent her entire life in Petaluma and wants the same for her newborn son and young daughter. But the scarcity of homes in Petaluma for lower and middle-income families is forcing her and her partner, Jason Gutierrez, to look elsewhere for a place to live, even though the pair hold down well-paying jobs.

Killinger works as an occupational therapist for the Veteran’s Administration, providing home-based primary care for physically and mentally disabled veterans from Petaluma to Willits.

Gutierrez is a plumber for Incom Mechanical, which provides plumbing and fire protection services for commercial construction from Novato to San Francisco.

“It’s not like we can’t afford to live here,” said Gutierrez. “Our salaries are good and we live well.”

In November, Mahoney Davison Co., the property management firm that manages Killinger and Gutierrez’s rental home, gave notice for the end of February. Killinger, then 8-months pregnant, asked for an extension. Mahoney Davison granted her request and gave her until the end of March to relocate.

“They were really accommodating. And to be honest, we have outgrown this little house. I’ve got two kids to look after now,” she said.

Unfortunately for Killinger and Gutierrez, every rental unit and every open house when they tried the buyer’s market, attracted a swarm of people who also want to live in Petaluma.

“It’s a zoo out there,” said Gutierrez. “And there were people willing to pay a lot more than standard rent or the asking price of a house,” he said.

The couple’s situation is just one example of a growing problem in Petaluma: there are simply too many people seeking to live in too few homes. Because new housing isn’t being built fast enough to satisfy demand, housing prices in both the renters’ and buyers’ markets are skyrocketing.

“In our 485 units in inventory, we have one listing available,” said Kerry Mahoney-Davison, owner and broker for Mahoney Davison. “And when we put that listing up to the public, the phone never stops ringing. It scares me to death the number of people in Petaluma looking for a home. I have friends, kids, relatives and their friends all asking me, begging me, for a place to stay. And they can all pay rent, but there’s simply no room available.”

The city’s ability to respond to this rising tide of home-seekers is weak, hampered by an ever-shrinking pot of money available to help fund construction of low income housing. Previously, the city had a redevelopment agency with a $3 million annual budget allocated to housing projects in the city for its low income residents. However, redevelopment agencies were abolished by state law in 2012, taking a significant chunk out of cities’ affordable housing budgets.

Another source for affordable housing development is a fee assessed on builders of new housing develpments. In essence, any residential construction company has two options when it completes building homes: allocate a percentage of their units for low-income housing or pay a fee based on how many units they made. Companies typically pay the fee, which the city uses to fund development of low-income housing. But the recent slow pace of housing construction has left this account very low.

According to Sue Castellucci, housing coordinator for the City of Petaluma: “This is just the beginning and it won’t go away.”

Even though the 144 apartment units under construction on Maria Drive are predicted to finish by next year, and two of 21 houses on Yarberry Lane are beginning final inspection, Castellucci doubts current projects are enough to satisfy demand.

“It’s a good start, but it’s not nearly enough,” she said.

In the non-profit community, Elece Hempel, executive director of the Petaluma People Services Center, works every day to find people a home. Her organization dedicates itself to providing home care and housing plans to all Petaluma citizens.

“We have to face the fact that there’s not a lot of places to build in Petaluma anymore due to the Urban Growth Boundary,” Hempel said. “But we still need to stay on the cutting edge of homeless prevention. We also need to think of the economic impact behind housing. If people have to move farther away, we might lose jobs.”

For Killinger and Gutierrez, location is the prime reason they want to stay in Petaluma. Because Killinger needs to travel as far as Willits and Gutierrez to San Francisco for work, moving too far north or south drastically worsens commute time for one of them. But the competition is starting to be too much for Killinger.

“It’s discouraging. All I want is a home for my family,” she said.

“I want my kids to have what I had growing up,” Gutierrez added. “A place close to their family where they can call home.”

(Contact William Rohrs at wil liam.rohrs@arguscourier.com.)

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