NOT IN OUR
BACKYARDS!
BY REBECCA
WILSON
We, the people of Marin, could care less about solving the problem of affordable housing. We need our working poor—those who earn five to eight dollars an hour—our bank tellers, firemen, social workers, nurses, teachers, receptionists, dental assistants and secretaries. But not enough so that we will make it possible for them to live here. The mythology is: You let one poor family in and with “them” comes drugs and violence, and then, whoops!—there goes the neighborhood.
“It’s NIMBY’s (Not-In-My-Back-Yard), NIMTO’s
(Not-In-My-Term-Of-Office) - and so-called -‘environmentalists’,” says Dwayne
Hunn of Novato Ecumenical Housing; who are blocking affordable home ownership
for lower and middle income families in Marin. “Who fights us the most? The
environmentalists,” says Hunn.
“Marin’s a patina
of liberalism,” says Peter Calthorpe, architect and builder of affordable
housing, “It’s NIMBYs who are operating in their own self-interest, their property
values...The unsaid kind of advocacy is that poor people can live in
Sonoma...and can commute.”
There’s only four percent of Marin that is
buildable, says Hunn, and most of it located along the 101 corridor. Hunn
charges that “so-called ‘environmentalists’,” who want to block pedestrian
pockets along 101 by the non-passage of Measure A, will cause more harm to the
environment.
Old Town Novato, Hamilton, St. Vincent’s
Silveira, are perfect for affordable, transit-oriented housing, argues Hunn.
“They want to preserve it for open space. Okay, keep it as open space, but give
us a little piece.”
Ironically, argue Calthorpe and Hunn, it’s commuting
that causes more pollution, more traffic, more harm to the environment, than
building affordable housing would. “If you’re a real environmentalist, you’re
concerned with overall metropolitan growth,” says Calthorpe.
“Pedestrian pockets... are affordable to the
household, and to the environment and redress the amount of land we need to
house ourselves,” says Calthorpe. But environmentalists, he says, don’t see it
this way.
“Environmentalism wreaks havoc on affordable
housing,” says Supervisor Giacomini, “It’s a conundrum... Stringent
environmental rules means no development and means no affordable housing.” Both
Hunn and Giacomini charge that the Coastal Post is partially to blame for
taking a pro-environmental, no development stance.
“There’s not a willingness in the public,”
says Giacomini, because affordable housing is a function of high-density, and
Marin doesn’t want that. He points out that it took five years to build ten
units of affordable housing in Point Reyes.
“The public goes crazy over anything bigger than a
duplex,” says Giacomini. NIMBYism, the water moratorium, and lack of federal
and state funding make affordable housing a non-reality for Marin, Giacomini
says. “It’s two sides of a coin…the tougher we protect this place, the other
side is, it’s exclusionary.”
The end result is that “People with kids can’t
afford to live here,” says Giacomini. Hunn believes young starting families are
“the most endangered species.”
The need for affordable housing is very real in
Mann, says Susan Brown of the Human Concern Center, where the working poor are
paying up to 75 percent of their income for shelter and living at the edge of
homelessness.
Calls for help at the Human Concern Center are up
86 percent from last year. The center assists families with food, financial and
rental assistance.
“We are estimating 15,000 more requests for
help this year,” says Brown, “Over 1,000 children are homeless in Mann
according the United Way Needs Assessment,” according to Brown. ‘That’s
because of a lack of affordable housing.”
She adds, “We’re looking for leadership from our
elected officials who are willing and skilled in facilitating partnerships
throughout the community, involving our best and our brightest. The deciding
factor is the will and it is becoming increasingly clear that the denial of
affordable housing is no longer possible.”
Affordable housing can be done, says Hunn,
who knows because he’s done it. The NEH’s program is so successful that Solano
County has hired the agency to plan their affordable housing. “But we’ve had
trouble in Marin,” he says.
“We’ve done 63 with no money. We’ve done the same
thing that rich people do— invest in real estate so that low and middle income
families can have a right to own a house and share in the American Dream.”
Hunn
emphasizes that owned affordable housing—not just affordable rentals—is
crucial. “It gives a sense of pride and ownership, it gives kids a sense of a
fixed place—they don’t have to worry that mommy and daddy are going to get
kicked out because the rent subsidy check didn’t come in.
“Affordable housing is not something you should fight,” he
observes. “It’s something that you should help happen.”
But Marin is not helping it to happen. While there’s
the way, there’s not the will. And as long as there is no will, Marin’s
diversity will continue to wither and die, the community will grow older, the
young people will leave, and the families will leave, too. And then, who will
be left?