News Articles
On May 26, Mayor Emily Sanborn and the City Council formally proclaimed May 2026 as Affordable Housing Month in Rohnert Park. The proclamation recognized something many residents already know from lived experience ...
The Community Voice | July 3, 2026
The city of Napa is entering into negotiations to develop the city’s first affordable housing project under a land trust model, a means to provide homeownership opportunities for people otherwise priced out of the local housing market. ...
Press Democrat | March 26, 2025
When Christin Carter found out she was becoming a mother in 2002, she decided it was time to buy a home. ...
Time | February 7, 2025
Rohnert Park has rental and ownership units at lower prices than many other cities in the North Bay, but it is a challenge to ensure that prices and supply continue to match the incomes of prospective tenants and owners. ...
North Bay Review | December 16, 2024
Stop almost anyone on the street today and you’ll hear we’re in a housing crisis. In most American counties, minimum-wage workers can’t afford to rent even a modest one-bedroom apartment. ...
New York Times | September 18, 2024
The Housing Land Trust of the North Bay has, for more than 20 years, provided home ownership opportunities in Sonoma County for people priced out of the housing market there. In the near future, the nonprofit will likely be taking its first steps into Napa County to do the same thing for people here ...
Press Democrat | December 20, 2023
Unlike the experimental pilot programs being implemented by our towns and counties, the community land trust (CLT) model has proven it works and is being used around the world to create and keep affordable housing within communities.
Moon Shine Ink | August 10, 2023
There are now 30 Prohousing communities, but what might be of interest to local readers is that two of three are host cities to state colleges—Rohnert Park (Sonoma State) along with Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz) along with the San Francisco suburb, South San Francisco, “have earned the state’s Prohousing Designation making them eligible for funding incentives and additional resources as a reward for their work to reduce barriers to building more housing.”
The Davis Vanguard | August 5, 2023
Founded during the Civil Rights era, community land trusts buy the land a house sits on and typically grant a 99-year ground lease to homeowners, ensuring a lower price point because buyers are technically purchasing only the house, not the land, according to the Grounded Solutions Network. When homeowners are ready to move on, they must sell the house back to the land trust at a restricted price, but can still earn equity based on a resale formula each land trust provides.
New York Times | July 8, 2023
In late spring, North Bay counties are seeing a rise in interest from home buyers, at the same time cities are cultivating more apartment and home construction. Trends in the North Bay echo national shifts, including nearly a 10% rise in home construction in February.
North Bay Biz | April 14, 2023
The cost of living is getting worse and worse for residents all across the United States. When we talk about overall housing prices, California takes the cake though. So, whenever a community can come together to create an environment that’s much cheaper to live than other parts of the city, while still having fantastic houses, they do it. For those who have followed the Cotati City Council closely over the years, you know that affordable housing is the number one issue they tend to discuss, which is why Wednesday afternoon was such a monumental milestone.
Community Voice | March 25, 2022
Ground broke this month on Jamie Lane, an affordable housing pilot project in the city of Cotati that utilizes manufactured homes, infill sites and partnerships from the local to the national level. It’s welcome news for a region with high housing costs that has also suffered the loss of housing inventory from recent wildfires and other disasters.
California Forward | June 23, 2021
Nonprofits that purchase land, build homes on it and sell them below market rate are giving low-income buyers a chance. If anyone knows how gentrification has displaced Black working-class residents in Atlanta, it’s Makeisha Robey, a preschool teacher. During her two decades living in the city, she has watched affordable apartment complexes vanish as new developments arise and wealthier, white residents move in.
New York Times | April 15, 2021
Nearing a month into the local shutdown to slow the coronavirus, the region’s push to build affordable housing is in danger of being overwhelmed by yet another crisis — that of even greater demand for lower-income units as the economy slows and housing funds shrink.
Expanding the supply of workforce housing is a struggle under normal conditions, but the challenge has become even more difficult as budgets tighten and competition intensifies for limited government subsidies that help deliver affordable units.
Press Decmocrat | April 12, 2020
Seventy-two new units of affordable housing are part of a residential development under construction in Rohnert Park’s W Section neighborhood at the city’s southeastern edge.
The Willowglen project entails 477 dwellings, including 405 market-rate units and the remainder set aside to meet affordable-housing requirements. The 72 income-restricted units comprise rental and for-sale properties priced for a range of households, from the very low to median levels of affordability.
Press Decmocrat | September 1, 2019
A year ago, Norma Sanchez and Ambrocio Carrera were on the verge of losing their East Oakland home — staring down a massive rent hike and with no hope of affording a new place close to their jobs or their three sons’ schools.
Now, thanks to an innovative strategy gaining traction in the Bay Area, not only did the
family stay put, they’re on their way to owning that home.
“It’s very emotional,” Carrera said in Spanish. “It’s something that, in the beginning,
you don’t believe. But here we are.”
The Mercury News | July 30, 2018
While it may be a drop in the local housing shortage bucket, Sonoma Valley Hospital’s decision to sell its empty “south lot” on the corner of MacArthur Street and Fourth Street West is likely to result in two dozen new homes hitting the market a few years out.
Earlier this summer, the Sonoma Valley Health Care District board voted to sell its 2.83 acre so-called “south lot” – and last week the board voted to accept a proposal submitted by Concord-based DeNova Builders. The term sheet for the proposal indicates a purchase price that will range from $3 million to $4 million, depending on how many housing units DeNova can build on the lot.
Sonoma Index Tribune | September 14, 2017
Since a looming teacher shortage was first identified as a problemfacing Sonoma County schools nearly two years ago, the Sonoma County Office of Education has worked diligently to recruit and retain quality teachers for the county’s school districts. I’m pleased to say that the North Coast School of Education, which SCOE launched in January 2016, now has 140 teaching candidates enrolled.
Some of these candidates already are working as interns in local classrooms, easing the impact of teacher retirements and helping our community stay ahead of the staffing shortage that is impacting schools around the state and nation.
The Press Democrat | April 8, 2017
Santa Rosa is getting significant interest from developers seeking some of the $3 million in subsidies the city is offering to spur the construction of affordable housing.
The city has received applications from eight developers who say they could use the funds to get their projects under construction, some as early as this fall.No decisions have been made yet about which, if any, applications to grant. The city is still reviewing the proposals and following up with developers to clarify details. Then, the applications will be vetted and presented to the City Council in March
The Press Democrat | January 14, 2017
In 2008, the Carter family was facing the same struggle so many others in Sonoma Countydo: trying to find affordable housing in one of the least affordable counties in the state.
For Mary Carter, now 39 and an elementary school teacher, and her husband, Patrick Carter, now 37 and executive director of the Sonoma County Waste Management Agency, the odds of them being able to live in the county in which they worked seemed impossible. She was just starting her career as a teacher, he was working as a waste management specialist for the county and they were expecting baby No. 1, James.
The Press Democrat | January 4, 2017
A Bay Area developer is seeking to build nearly 200 housing units near the intersection of Petaluma’s North McDowell Boulevard and Corona Road, including 25 units set aside for sale to lower income home buyers.
Directly north of land long pegged as the site of a future east side station for Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit, the Brody Ranch subdivision would include 59 singlefamily homes, one duplex and a total of 138 condominiums, according to a city summary of project plans. The 16acre development would also include a picnic and play area, a network of bicycle and pedestrian paths, wetlands and open space.
Argus-Courier Staff | Novemeber 12, 2016
At the Hog Island Oyster Company in Marshall, Calif., diners eat at picnic tables overlooking Tomales Bay, where oysters and clams grow just offshore.
But while lunch reaches your plate with virtually no food-miles on it, that is not true of Hog Island’s staff. “We have 57 employees here at the farm,” said Terry Sawyer, the operation’s co-founder. “Maybe a dozen of them live out here.”
“Out here” is the westernmost reaches of West Marin, in Marin County about 40 miles north of San Francisco. Federal parkland, Point Reyes National Seashore, constitutes much of the region.
By Greg Beato | Nov. 3, 2015
Midtownesubdivision breaks ground
Six units available to working families at lower cost Midtowne, a 34unit subdivision on Healdsburg Avenue between Ferrero Drive and Monte Vista Avenue, began construction this week. The highly visible piece of land along Healdsburg’s main street is fenced off, and site work is expected to last much of the year.
By Ray Holley Managing Editor | Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Healdsburg, the priciest real estate market in Sonoma County, is searching for ways to create more affordable housing, a daunting proposition in a community considered highly desirable to live inbut with a stringent growth. control policy. The City Council is putting affordable housing — or the lack of it — in the spotlight with a series of workshops designed to come up with solutions. Rents and home prices have steadily escalated in many Bay Area communities, not so bad for property owners, but squeezing out tenants and first-time home buyers. The problem is particularly acute in Healdsburg...
Press Democrat By Clark Mason | February 28, 2015
On one block of Sonata, Healdsburg’s most recently built subdivision, are six homes reserved for low-income families, among the dwindling number of “affordable” dwellings to be built in town over the past five years.
Those families have achieved a piece of the American dream that seemed all too far out of reach — home ownership.
“We applied and waited and waited and waited. When we found out we had one of the houses, we were kind of beside ourselves,” said Samantha Jacques, 30, a stay-at-home mother of two young children who lives in Sonata with her teacher husband, Craig.
Press Democrat By Clark Mason | February 28, 2015
A healthy economy and soaring rents and home prices are spurring demand for more affordable housing in the San Francisco Bay Area, but barriers, including cuts in government funding, are making it tough to meet that need.
“Funding is extremely difficult,” said Chris Neale, vice president of The Core Companies, which has developed more than 2,000 affordable housing units in the South Bay.
State and federal investment in affordable homes in California over the last six years dropped by more than $1.5 billion annually, according to a February 2014 report by the California Housing Partnership Corporation, a San Francisco-based affordable housing advocacy group.
Appears in The Registry by Nancy Amdur
June 9, 2014
What if we could combat gentrification and foreclosure and homelessness — all at the same time? That's the aim of community land trusts. Everything was right on track for Jennifer Ferris, a writer based in Chapel Hill, N.C. That is, until suddenly, one day, it wasn’t.
Appears in Economic Revitalization by Laura Gottesdiener
April 10, 2014
Despite the significant decrease in housing prices since the end of the housing boom, affordable housing remains a critical issue for low- to moderate-income families.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
July 28, 2012
Despite unemployment rates and subprime lending, delinquent mortgages and foreclosures continue to decline in Community Land Trusts
Community land trusts continue to deliver successful homeownership to lower-income earners despite trends in subprime lending and unemployment.
Roger Lewis, Executive Director
July 28, 2011
Community land trusts succeed in curing delinquencies and preventing foreclosures, and the numbers show it. By EMILY THADEN AND JOHN DAVIS
December, 2010
Community land trust homeowners continue to succeed based on a model of long-term affordability and post-purchase stewardship.
April 8th, 2010
Even now, much of the West still lacks affordable housing – here’s one community’s green answer to the problem.
Sunset Magazine By Allison A. Rieff Photograhs by Michael Hanson
February, 2010
Striving to address the lack of affordable housing in Calgary, the mayor is putting together a workforce housing strategy to start building 1,000 multi-family units on vacant school sites across the city.
Calgary Herald Colette Derworiz
Monday, March 16, 2009
Calgary, Canada may implement similar workforce housing project
Argus-Courier A workforce housing development in Petaluma has attracted the attention of a Canadian mayor.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Author: P. Joseph Potocki North Bay Biz March, 2008 Issue Making home ownership a reality for the North Bay’s workforce. Truly affordable housing may be our most immediately pressing North Bay challenge. Just how do we finance, build and provide housing for an ever-growing workforce?
Gary Marsh 415.453.7045 gary@marshmarketing.com The City of Petaluma and Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County Open Workforce Housing Community Frates Square 23 of 26 of workforce homes in Petaluma pre-sold in first partnership between a private developer, a municipal government and the Housing Land Trust
Author: Bob Klose [All articles by this author] March, 2007 Issue Habitat for Humanity of Sonoma County provides the ways and means for low-inc to become homeowners.
New model emerges for affording a home Housing Land Trust plan helps families buy houses by removing parcel from equation. PRESS DEMOCRAT - September 16, 2006
Published on October 5, 2005 PETALUMA ARGUS-COURIER STAFF by By COREY YOUNG
Petaluma City OKs deal for low-cost homes Published on Tuesday, October 4, 2005 By Tobias Young - PRESS DEMOCRAT
Published on September 25, 2004 © 2004 The Press Democrat BYLINE: SHERI GRAVES THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Greatest gift: 'Sweat equity' project gives low income families something they otherwise could never afford here —a home of their own. Saturday, December 25, 2004 By ROBERT DIGITALE - THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
May 11, 2004 By Chris Smith
Article published - Jul 4, 2005 By MICHAEL COIT - THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Director Dev Goetschius helps Housing Land Trust create affordable homes. Monday, July 4, 2005 By MICHAEL COIT - THE PRESS DEMOCRAT