Former Coast Guard housing that CLAM, the Community Land Trust of West Marin, aims to turn into affordable housing in Point Reyes Station on Sept. 3, 2024. Supervisors are aiming to make it easier to build temporary housing in response to a deal to end most Point Reyes ranching, but residents say new permanent affordable housing is needed. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)
Marin County supervisors on Tuesday declared a shelter crisis in an effort to make it easier to build temporary housing for residents in unincorporated parts of the North Bay county.
The board said the move is especially needed for West Marin ranch and dairy workers, many of whom are poised to be displaced as the vast majority of the Point Reyes National Seashore’s ranches sunset operations in the next year and a half under a recent settlement. But temporary shelter won’t be enough, some residents say, arguing that new permanent affordable housing will be needed to keep the longstanding community of farmworkers and immigrants in West Marin.
“This is not enough,” said Enrique, who got emotional as he spoke on behalf of the Martinelli Ranch area of Point Reyes Station. He joined workers around the room donning the colors of the United Farm Workers flag during Tuesday’s meeting.
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“Regarding this temporary housing solutions, I ask you to think of this analogy: What would you do if I were to tell you, ‘Carry this bit of ice and put this bit of ice to the fridge,’” he said. “Do you think that piece of ice will make it [in] the fridge? I ask of you a fair solution.”
While Enrique and many other speakers pressed supervisors to consider approving more long-term housing units — a longtime issue in Marin County — it was clear in the board chambers Tuesday that temporary housing is also sorely needed in West Marin. Many residents who have worked and lived on cattle and dairy ranches along the Point Reyes National Seashore for decades could lose that housing in the coming year as the ranching agreement takes effect.
Downtown Point Reyes Station on Sept. 3, 2024. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)
“These families represent a critical part of West Marin’s workforce, schools and community,” said Agnes Cho, who works for the Community Land Trust Association of West Marin. “If they lose their homes, they have nowhere to go. There is a longer-term need to create more affordable housing in West Marin where working families can live, and [the association] is actively working on this…. But these impacted families need housing in a matter of months, not years.”
Supervisors unanimously approved the crisis declaration as well as a related change to the county code, which expands the types of emergency shelters that can be set up on county-owned and leased land.
Current building codes require that structures have a permanent foundation, which precludes many “temporary solutions” that are easier to put in place and move, according to the county.
Sarah Jones, the director of the county’s community development agency, said the change would allow mobile homes and relocatable cabins, such as tiny homes, to act as a “bridge” while the county brings more permanent units online.
Even months before the settlement deal, which could eliminate some of those dwellings, the report estimated that West Marin needed to build more than 450 new housing units. The study says that upwards of 1,000 would be “more realistic to address the actual demand.”
About 1,090 unhoused people live in Marin County, according to its most recent point-in-time count. While about 300 currently reside in shelters, nearly 800 live on the street or in vehicles.
“The shelter crisis declaration and the alternate building codes are critical pieces to developing these interim housing solutions,” Cho said during public comment. “These policies will allow [the Community Land Trust Association] and the county to embrace really creative emergency housing solutions, such as using tiny homes on wheels or alternate housing structures, that are safe, quick and cost-efficient.”
Two worker housing units on a ranch in Tomales, California, on Sept. 3, 2024. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)
She said that the association had already identified several potential sites for such interim housing, but Tuesday’s declaration was not affiliated with any specific projects. It also doesn’t allocate funding for new temporary homes.
“We’re in a room with a combination of despair and hope, and what you’re doing today is actually loading the gun of expectation,” former Marin County Supervisor Steve Kinsey said during public comment. He said that for the resolution to make a difference, the board would need to incentivize landowners to pursue these temporary projects and also make strides in permanent housing over the next three years.
Jones, the community development agency director, said the county is working on an affordable housing development on a former U.S. Coast Guard site in Point Reyes Station. The site will create 54 housing units for families that qualify as low-income and is expected to be finished in 2027.
She said Marin is also preparing to amend its local coastal program to support new affordable housing along the seashore. That could include changes to allow upzoning, multiple additional dwelling units on a single property, and project streamlining, similar to policy changes made in other unincorporated parts of the county, she told KQED.
Jones expects the amendment to come before the county planning commission next fall.
“You’ll be back here in two years if we don’t find a way to create permanent housing,” Kinsey said during the meeting. “And the opportunities are quite limited in West Marin, so I just want to emphasize how important it is to figure out the next step, even as you’re taking this first one.”
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