The low availability of quality, affordable housing remains a sticking point in every discussion about economics and quality of life in Mendocino County. The Anderson Valley Housing Association, which manages properties for low income residents in the area and is always on the lookout for more solutions, put out a housing needs assessment in October. Workers in several sectors of the local economy filled out a total of 217 surveys online, and Housing Association board members distributed hard copies to vineyards, the school district and health clinic, and several other businesses in the valley. The results are broken down in terms of which job sectors are hardest hit by the cost and availability of the housing, and whether or not it met workers’ needs and was in good shape.
Housing Association Board member Rebecca Goldie said the point was to quantify a problem that just about everyone has encountered. “Everyone in the valley has a friend or a work colleague who is living in a trailer, or they’re asking about rentals because they’re about to move out,” she noted. “We wanted to make that less than anecdotal…We wanted to ask people where they're living, how much they’re earning, how much of their wage they’re spending on rent, so we could actually get some proper facts and statistics.”
Fellow Housing Association Board member Stephanie Gold asked the question that everyone wants an answer to. “What options are there to fix up, for rentals, the stock that’s in the valley, or add to that stock, so there’s enough housing to go around for the workers?”
A lot of the land in the valley is zoned for agriculture, where housing is restricted to providing dwellings for agricultural workers. The assessment notes that only two employers/property owners have taken advantage of that provision. “There’s very little area that is zoned for multi-family,” Gold noted. “So residences, even if it’s a residence on 20, 30, 40 acres, they are allowed to add one extra unit. But that’s not using the land in a way that will create enough housing stock.”
Goldie added that even with zoning allowances, it’s often difficult to get water and septic to new residences, “So that just adds another layer,” she concluded.
The survey found that 73% of people in the valley have considered leaving. “I just thought that was a stunningly high number of people who have considered moving,” said Gold. A significant majority, 65% of respondents, said they thought they could afford a mortgage, but could not pay a down payment on a house. Gold said the Housing Association is always interested in the idea of a community land trust, where people can rent a lot at a nominal fee, build their own homes on the lot, and then commit to selling them at an affordable price, “so it’s not flipping for profit. And it keeps affordable house ownership paying forward to new families,” she explained. The difficulty will be finding a lot that is the right size, zoned for multi-family residences, and which has water and septic for new homes.
Goldie stressed that she wants to counter the perception that, “Affordable housing means transient residents or renters who don’t take care of the property they live in. I really want to stress the point that the survey shows that affordable really is related to your income. And it’s not about being dirt poor. It’s just about being in the situation where if you’re paying rent to someone right now, you can't save for a deposit, for a mortgage, and you’re never going to be able to own your own home. So you’re trapped.”
The 11-page assessment is under “Resources” on the homepage of the Anderson Valley Housing Association’s website. “We plan on sharing the report with a long list of public officials and community organizations,” Gold said. “So we don’t intend to sit on it.”
There are also links to regulatory information and free plans for Additional Dwelling Units, or ADU’s. The Anderson Valley Housing Association invites people to offer comments and ideas, in English or Spanish, as they prepare for further assessments that they hope will lead to community forums or funding opportunities to bring more affordable housing stock to the valley.