Part 1: New State Laws make ADUs easier and cheaper New California laws took effect on January 1st that affect second units, now called “accessory dwelling units” (ADUs). This month we focus on how this legislation makes it easier to get approval to build an ADU and radically cut costs to create it. Next month we will look…
Rent vs Income: The Affordability Gap WIDENS Incomes are not keeping up with the cost of living here Low Income in Marin is $105,350 per year Bay Area media recently reported that a Marin family of four making $105,350 a year now qualifies as “low income.” But the more important news is that Marin’s “affordability…
There is a housing crisis in Marin. Is it a simple supply and demand problem? In large part it is undeniably driven by the clash, on the demand side, of robust job growth, against, on the supply side, Marin’s anemic housing development. MEHC has spoken often about how Marin’s land use policies have contributed to this problem,…
Every other January, communities throughout the nation conduct “point-in-time” counts of their homeless populations.Marin’s January 2015 survey found 1,309 people living without a home. This was a big increase, as well as an unfortunate change in direction, from the previous two counts that found 1,220 homeless in 2011 and 924 people without a home in…
Why Bother, Indeed. Today, Marin is in a severe housing crisis. Fully 96% of our housing is market-rate; this means that households with only moderate income can afford to live in only 4% of our housing units, and only 3% of our homes and apartments are within the affordability reach of lower income folks. In the past 12 months, the median price…
Housing doesn’t generate traffic, jobs do Almost 5,000 people commute from Solano County into Marin for work. Over 15,000 come from Sonoma County, and 2,300 from Sacramento. In 2014 there were around 110,000 jobs in Marin. Almost 2/3 of this workforce – 68,000 people – commuted here from other counties*. Roughly 35,000 in-commuters travel at least 50…
Marin isn’t ready to grow old We are completely unprepared to meet the housing needs of the fastest growing group in our community –- seniors. Today, only two affordable senior housing projects are in the planning stage:Peace Village in Fairfax andWhistlestop in San Rafael. Even if both are completed as currently proposed within the next 2-5 years, we would…
The lack of it hurts everyone Most people who work in Marin don’t live here. This trend has been going on since the early 2000s and it’s getting worse. In 2003 there were approximately 102,000 jobs in Marin. Over 56,000 of those jobs — 55% — were held by workers who commuted from other counties….