Some residents forced to leave or become homeless

Marin Independent Journal, Letters to the Editor, February 3, 2022

An article published in the Marin IJ on Jan. 20 heralded “growing resistance” to the proposed Homekey site at 1251 South Eliseo Drive. However, comments at the Jan. 18 forum on this project were split evenly between supporters and skeptics.

This project has been endorsed by the Marin Catholic Deanery, the president of Marin Catholic High School, the Bay Area Council, Marin Community Clinics and Buckelew Programs. Speakers from the Marin Organizing Committee, Showing Up for Racial Justice and the Marin Environmental Housing Collaborative expressed support, among them neighbors of the project site. The Independent Journal editorial board agreed (“Marin needs to pursue Greenbrae Homekey proposal,” Nov. 14).

While some express concern that this project would attract homeless people into Marin, the latest data on the homeless population shows that 73% of the unhoused in Marin were county residents when they became homeless. Marin is actually losing residents. Studies show they get priced out due to the high cost of housing.

It seems that Marin exports its poor to other communities because we simply will not create housing to allow them to stay here. Some, lacking the resources and social support to move elsewhere, simply become homeless — remaining in the community they know.

We cannot continue to export lower-income people or force them into encampments. We also cannot continue to ask our few low-income communities to take responsibility for all of the supportive housing in the county. The many of us that support this project and other Homekey sites believe Marin can and should take responsibility for our homeless population and create supportive housing in every community. The Marin Environmental Housing Collaborative urges the Board of Supervisors to approve funding when state funding is received.

— Larry Kennings, Mill Valley

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