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Affordable housing projects in San Rafael, Novato, and Point Reyes Station are receiving a total of $ 1.38 million in government grants, according to Marin County regulators on Tuesday.
Half of the money, $ 689,000, comes from a state grant made possible by Senate Draft 2, which was part of a $ 15 cheap package approved in 2017 to help address the lack of affordable housing in the state.
The rest comes from the district’s fund for affordable housing. The district was obliged to provide the necessary funds to qualify for the state grants. After the $ 689,000 match is deducted, $ 10.7 million remains.
Leelee Thomas, a county planning officer, said the county could receive an additional $ 3.6 million in SB-2 funding for similar projects over the next five years. However, Thomas said the funds are contingent on the county getting its new housing element approved by the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development.
To achieve this, the county must come up with viable plans to encourage the construction of 3,569 new homes in unincorporated areas by 2030.
Each of the three projects approved on Tuesday will receive the same amount: approximately $ 459,000.
Two of the projects come from Homeward Bound of Marin, the nonprofit that provides shelter for the homeless in the county. Homeward Bound’s new Mill Street Center in San Rafael is one of those projects. The four-story building will combine 40-bed emergency accommodation with 32 studio apartments with permanent supportive living on the upper two floors. The construction costs are to be covered with the subsidy.
“It’s amazing how fast it goes up,” said Mary Kay Sweeney, General Manager of Homeward Bound Marin. “We will be finished with the construction in August.”
The nonprofit raised approximately $ 18.5 million of the $ 19 million project cost.
The other Homeward Bound project that will receive funding will take place at the former Hamilton Air Force Base in Novato. It will consist of 24 one-bedroom apartments for permanent support housing for homeless veterans, 26 one-bedroom apartments with affordable housing for workers and a vocational training center.
“We’re still going through the approval process on this project,” said Paul Fordham, Associate Director of Homeward Bound. “Until this is done, we don’t have a final design, so we can’t clearly taste it.”
Fordham estimates the project will cost about $ 30 million. Homeward Bound raised about a third of that amount.
“We hope to start demolishing before the end of 2022,” said Fordham. “The new building is expected to begin in 2023.”
If everything goes according to plan, the project could be completed by mid-2024.
The third project, which will receive $ 459,000 in grants, will convert the former Coast Guard premises at Point Reyes Station into affordable housing. The Community Land Trust Association of West Marin and Eden Housing are the developers of the project. On the site there are 36 row houses, a barracks with 24 rooms, a dining room and a kitchen as well as several outbuildings.
Before the state grant from SB 2 could be committed, the Marin District Priority-Setting Committee had to approve a set of goals for their use and confirm that each project funded supported at least one of those goals. The committee also oversees the distribution of federal housing subsidies.
The goals were to create family apartments, rental apartments, own homes or apartments with special needs. Aline Tanielian, a district planner, told overseers that there was a fifth goal: to help develop land trusts, “especially those in East Marin that offer special-inclusion home ownership opportunities for African American residents.”
Marin City’s Golden Gate Village Residents Council has announced that the county will help them set up a land trust, and they want the Marin Housing Authority to take ownership of Golden Gate Village, a public housing project of 300 homes owned by the Federal government, hands over that trust.
The district priority-setting committee consists of local council representatives, overseer Judy Arnold, and several residents who are considered members of the “protected classes” under the Fair Housing Act.
“To meet equity goals, the committee also urged staff to include a positive marketing request for the enclosure and prioritize projects that serve or are led by members of the protected classes,” Tanielian said.
People are considered members of a protected class because of their race, color, national origin, religion, gender, disability, and whether they are caring for a child, pregnant or adopting.
During the public comment of the board meeting, Clayton Smith said, “It is a slippery descent to put aside equality under the law and embrace the idea that there are protected classes of people in a society who should present themselves as such democratic and egalitarian. “
Eva Chrysanthe countered: “The idea that there were no protected classes in the times of the founding fathers is absurd at first glance. The protected class were the white gentlemen who wrote the constitution and signed the declaration of independence. “
Tamela Fish said, “I was also triggered off by the phrase ‘protected class’. There is a past that we must overcome, and if that means we must elevate one community to make up for what we previously protected in another, then we must do so. “
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