Activists rally around local housing issue

Housing activists in Petaluma are adding their voices to a broader regional movement that is seeking to highlight the impact of rising housing prices and the limited supply of affordable and market-rate units throughout Sonoma County.

Under the umbrella of the North Bay Organizing Project, a regional advocacy organization focused on issues including housing, the Petaluma chapter’s formation comes amid what many describe as a time of historic challenge for the affordability and availability of rental housing in Petaluma.

“We’re really trying to increase knowledge on this issue,” said George Beeler, a Petaluma-area architect and community activist who is co-chairing the effort to conjure a local movement around housing issues.

Among the goals of the newly formed group is to organize community discussions about housing challenges in Petaluma, and to gather public support in a push for the city to explore new solutions to the problem.

“The people that work in this community, teach our kids, cut our hair, clean our houses - they can’t afford to live here,” Beeler said.

Petaluma has historically been successful in the construction of affordable housing, using $3 million in annual state funding for its former redevelopment agency to support the construction of more than 1,300 units of affordable housing since 1984. More than 22 percent of all new housing units built in Petaluma over the past 15 years have been designated for low-income residents, exceeding the city’s own goal of 15 percent, according to information from the city’s housing division.

That legacy ran up against a harsh reality after California abolished its redevelopment program during the ongoing economic downturn in 2011. Without those funds, the city lost its primary tool for contributing to the often byzantine mix of outside funding sources that make those projects more attractive for private developers.

“Petaluma was fortunate to have $3 million in redevelopment for affordable housing,” said Sue Castellucci, the city’s housing program coordinator. “When we had it, we used it.”

The city has since pivoted to a lower-cost approach, funding programs like a one-time rental assistance grant provided in partnership with Petaluma People Services Center. While those programs are considered effective, efforts in general have been limited in scope due to lower levels of funding available.

“What has happened to our community with the loss of redevelopment funding - that was our leverage,” said Petaluma Mayor David Glass.

It’s a story that has played out throughout the county and California itself, where the loss of redevelopment funding thrust countless planned projects - housing and otherwise - into question.

Concerns around housing in the region do not solely center on low-income housing. Market-rate rents have continued to ratchet up in Petaluma in recent years, currently averaging around $1,700 for a one-bedroom apartment. Even with those rising prices, vacancy is still limited, and currently hovers at around 2 percent, Castellucci said.

It was last week that hundreds of activists, including several from Petaluma, gathered in Santa Rosa for a high-profile rally calling for new action on housing throughout Sonoma County. The Santa Rosa City Council has been in the spotlight recently after voting to fast-track a planned study on options to support housing affordability, including possibilities like rent control.

While no similar study is currently underway in Petaluma, Glass said housing affordability, including subjects like rent control, has been a frequent topic of discussion in the community and among city staff. He expressed concern that new ordinances might take money away from current programs, and said city-wide rent control in particular may come to have the opposite of the intended effect.

“Rent control at the high levels rent is at in Petaluma - it would lock in rents that are so high, it wouldn’t have much of an impact,” he said, adding that “there are about 800 units in the pipeline. If you instituted rent control, the developer could convert it to condominiums, and that wouldn’t help the inventory problem.”

He argued that a more effective solution would be for the state to restore some kind of outside funding mechanism for affordable housing that could fill in for the role formerly held by redevelopment.

Beeler said his group is just getting started on its efforts to grow a local movement around housing issues in Petaluma. Topics of concern include new construction, current housing prices, homelessness and a push to support development around transit hubs like those around stations for the upcoming Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit system.

“We’re just at the very beginning of the conversation,” he said. “There’s no silver bullet. But we need to do something.”

(Contact Eric Gneckow at eric.gneckow@arguscourier.com. On Twitter @Eric_Reports.)