Housing in Sonoma County : The Community Development Commission

Sonoma County, a diverse county of over one million acres is famed for its agriculture industry and recreation boasting a booming economy and a unique lifestyle for its citizens described by the same Luther Burbank as the chosen spot of all the earth. Sonoma County is the place

to live, work and play as we move into the 21st century. Led by the forward looking philosophy of its governing bodies. Sonoma County's 340,000 residents are a harmonious, successful blend of ethnic and economic backgrounds. We invite you to take a closer look at Sonoma County in

the nineties with your host Rich McGlinchey, How you doing everybody? Welcome to another edition of Sonoma County in the nineties. On location on location at the beautiful new jockey club on the eastern side of Sonoma County Fairgrounds. This new county facility, The simulcast facility. Come and

watch and wager on the races. You can have a lovely luncheon at the jockey club, catering service restaurants. There's a snack bar on one side and the dining room on the other. It's a very lovely place to visit. I hope you come out and see it

soon. On this edition of our program. I'm gonna be talking to a guest that's been with me a time or two before, but not for quite a while. I guess it is janey Walsh and janie is the executive director of the community development commission and janie

that's a mouthful, isn't it? All right, well, why don't we go right back into the beginning? It was nice to see you. There has been a long time, how long, two or three years? It's been about three years has happened to you since then? Well, we're

going through a lot of changes in the organization, a lot of needs in our community and hopefully we're ready and able to meet them. That's happened to me too. I retired. That's true. Listen janey, I think when we said you were the executive director of the

Community Development Commission, a lot of people's ears and says, what is that? What is? So what is the Community Development Commission? The Community Development Commission is an umbrella agency that includes the housing authority for the county, the redevelopment agency and all of the community development programs.

We really handle all the affordable housing programs throughout the county, helping out in both the incorporated area and with most of the cities throughout the county. So it's a Agency that kind of is a one stop shopping for making sure that the development needs for the

lower-income families are met. That's, that's been a crying need for a long time and still remains one. How many employees are there now? We have 40 employees now. I think they're excellent employees. Yes. Uh, I know you do lots and lots of things. You've been opening

places and you can get into those in a moment. What are some of the challenges in the future in the area of housing. I see probably three major challenges for us in the near future and these challenges really involve a lot of the things that we

see in the news regarding federal problems. And they're located here in Sonoma County. So, I see one of our challenges for affordable housing is in the era area of producing new affordable housing for first time homebuyers, these are the families who really are striving to get

into that first home because they find it very, very difficult to come up with the down payment or to make the interest rate right at the very time that the interest rates are the lowest. So we're working hard on helping both nonprofit developers and for profit

developers um help to have that affordable housing. The second area, I would say, is preserving the housing that we do have, and that would be in the area of rehabbing it and retrofitting it. And finally, I think assisting young families who are dependent on welfare and

who are dependent on our housing assistance, We need to find a way to get them to be more productive citizens. So, I see those three areas as real challenges for us. Well, just to digress for a moment, housing is probably the most basic need and desire

on the part of any group of human beings and certainly a young family, once they have that if they can get that they have a stability really, in most cases, they never have without that really, at least, that's that's what my reading has pointed out, there's

232 or three areas. I want to ask you about jotted down here, what can be done to help? First time homebuyers, the areas that we're working in, our number one and M. C. C. Program. M. C. C. Stands for mortgage credit certificates. And we have worked

with the private lenders in the county which include over 50 lenders who are certified to help the first time homebuyers with this mortgage credit certificate, they actually get a 9% credit on their taxes every year for 15 years. So the lender then can qualify them more

easily. They can actually take that income Into account which averages maybe $2,000 a year more. So that's one major program that we were able to get the issuance of $27 million dollars in these tax credits. And that program is ongoing now so that if someone is

looking for their first home, they should definitely ask their realtor about the MCC program. We're also working with private developers and nonprofit developers to build more affordable first time homes. And we have agreements that in order for them to produce these first time Homebuyer affordable homes.

Then the county can give them additional incentives such as density bonuses, they can build more housing than usually the land would allow. And finally we have the self help program whereby um families can actually use their own sweat equity to build their own homes and they

have to put in about 30 hours a week and we've been extremely successful in building almost 200 homes in the county, just using the self help method. What resources are older for the preservation of older homes. I mean one or older what resources are available for

the preservation of older homes. The community Development block grant funds are the major source of our lending for preservation of older homes and that includes single family homes, mobile homes, duplexes, Apartments so that we can loan this money at 3% interest per year and there are

no payments to be made. They can defer those payments for 20 years. So we are helping lots and lots of homeowners to make sure that the roof that they need gets on there or the necessary safety equipment is installed within their homes janey. One of the

things that I'm sure will strike a court a lot of people is there hope in the future for helping people get off of welfare and not to need housing assistance? I think that is really the crux of what the nation is demanding right now? We're using

so many resources to help people that we know are in need. And of course number one that comes to mind is where are the jobs? How can these people get jobs? How can they make sure that they can be productive and get off it? One of

the major programs that we're working with is a brand new program called the Family Self Sufficiency Program, Those families who are on our Section eight rental assistance program whereby we will pay the landlord every month. These families are able to put any extra money that they

earn from their jobs into an escrow account. And whereas many families complain that they're penalized because when they work, then they do not get the essential health care or the essential um, kinds of assistance. So this is a program that wouldn't penalize them for working and

we work very closely with the social services department now called the Human services Department and I think it's a program that will work very, very well. We have several families who are enthusiastic, who are eager, who want to become very good parents who want to have

productive jobs and who are eager to learn. So we're helping in all those ways and I think that is the primary way that we're going to have to make sure people do get off of the kinds of public assistance that is bothering so many people in

the United States today, including the people that are on it. I mean, jesus pride factor there too, you know that, and I think those things are, are extremely important what you're doing. We're gonna pause right here. Let the station bring the public a public service announcement

after which we return, we'll talk more with jenny Walsh about the Community Development Commission Fact on this map. Each dot stands for a million people in 1492. World population was only one half billion. Today it's 5.5 billion and in about 30 years it made double to

11 billion fact over population and over consumption produce environmental devastation. So let's act now, please call Population Communications International 1 800 fact act for free information on behalf of our Children's future. Welcome back to this edition of Sonoma County in the nineties on location at the

beautiful new jockey club on the eastern side of Sonoma County fairgrounds. On this program, we're talking with jenny Walsh and jenny is the executive director of the Community Development Commission and we've been talking about the future of housing. Some of the things that might happen, talked

about help for first time homebuyers resources available for preserving, I should say older housing and then hope for people to get off of welfare and not to need housing anymore janey. Now, the next thing that comes to mind is a title I've heard, but I don't

really understand it either. What is the Section eight Housing Assistance program? The Section eight Housing Assistance program is a federally funded program to assist people with their rents. It's funded through the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and these funds come directly to our

commission through our Housing Authority and we in turn then will pay a portion of the family's rent directly to the landlord. The families pay no more than 30% of their income toward the rent. And then we will pay the landlord the remainder. You subsidize the part

that they can't pay 30%. Okay. Um, How many families in Sonoma County would you estimate are currently under the Section eight program? Currently we have approximately 1850 families. And that includes uh single parent families. It includes the elderly, both single and couples. And it includes the

disabled, those that are disabled, both mentally, developmentally and physically. Three categories of people that definitely need assistance. Yeah. How does a person go about getting on that program? The housing authority usually has um extensive publicity to make sure that all the cities in the county and

the unincorporated areas have notice of when the sign ups are. And you may remember in the paper, there have been photos of very long lines when people sign up to get onto the waiting list. We have probably 4000 families on our waiting list right now. And

how many people are on the program? About 1800 and 54,000 on the waiting list. Unfortunately, it's a very great need in our county. Well, since we're into this subject, how does it work? How does the program actually work after the family waits in line for a

long time. They are able then to be on our waiting list, hud then sets up a set of priorities. So the priorities would be if the family is homeless or if they're in danger of becoming homeless. And if they're in substandard housing or paying too much

for their housing, then their name will come up on the list. And one by one, we will have our staff verify their income, find out where they're living, making sure that it's a safe and sanitary unit. And then we enter into a lease between the housing

authority and the landlord together with a contract between the recipient and the housing authority. So it's a very detailed process that all of the communities in the state and throughout the nation have available to them. But as you can see, their need is always much greater

than the available resources 1800 on and 4000 waiting sounds like the availability is far outstripped by the need. Are there any benefits to owners of property? Let's say to participate in the section eight program? Sure. I would think so. I would think that by looking in

the paper, you can see that there are a lot of available apartments and houses for rent right now. So when the vacancy rate is fairly high in the community, it's a very good resource for landlords, they can call into the housing authority and say that they

have a vacant apartment or vacant house and that they want to rent it to a Section eight uh tenant. All they have to make sure is that it is a safe unit that there aren't any safety hazards. And as long as that happens, the landlord would

be able to get the Fair market rent. So they don't have to reduce their rent. They can just have whatever is reasonable for that area of the county. And they know that they will get the check from the housing authority on the first of every month

and they know that if there are damages that might be incurred at the end of the tendency that the housing authority can repay most of those damages. So I think most of the landlords who have participated and who are participating now are very happy with the

program. Well, I can test to that too because I was involved in that program a few years ago and I know other folks that are now and it is, it is a very good thing for the property owner themselves for two or three reasons, one of

them being that, you know that the 70% let's say of the the housing authority, their housing authorities portion of the check is going to be there every time. Even if the tenant has a little problem, which they never do, at least, I never have experienced that

they always managed to come up with that percentage because it is a good deal for them and desperately needed. Of course there's another thing that your housing. Well, I used to say Housing authority and the Community Development Commission, what is the community community development block program

And how much does the county receive each year to keep this program? The community development block grant program is another program that's funded by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. We've been receiving funds from hud since 1970 for and we are now in

entitlement county, which means that we can be assured of a certain amount of money every year from hud. We don't have to apply for it on a competitive basis. So I would estimate the average as being about $2.5 million every year that our county receives. Now.

It's not only for the unincorporated area, it's also together with all of the cities, except for the cities of santa rosa, petaluma because they are now entitlement cities and they can receive their own allocation. How is this money used? Well, for example, this next year, for

the 94-95 year we will be using really in excess of $3 million $2.4 million dollars that we will get it as an entitlement. We will also get reprogrammed money and some other funds that that were left over from projects not used. So this next year we

will be doing some public improvements and again for the health and safety of the individuals. We're going to be using the money for sewer lines down the Mirabel Heights area and another sewer line in the right area, which is the southwest area of the county. Those

are much needed so that people can hook up to sewers and they don't have failing septic tanks. We also will be using some of the money in the Fulton area for a beautification program that was really started by volunteers in the area. Much of our money

will be going to the rehabilitation program which we spoke about earlier for preservation of older housing. And we are getting into a new field now that really is necessary, which is rehabilitation of mobile homes. And we're doing the mobile homes in Rohnert Park, Sebastopol, Sonoma Sonoma

Valley, um Windsor and we also are starting a new program in the Russian River area. So rehab monies are important. Our nonprofit Burbank Housing Development Corporation will receive over $800,000 of that for developing new affordable housing. And finally some of the monies are used to assist

our homeless shelters such as catholic charities cots the Y. W. C. A variety of uses for that Block Grant program is good uses two. I was listening carefully uh incidentally are their material is their material or programs or brochures available to explain this program and how

it works. And we have several brochures, especially for the rehabilitation program, the Section eight program and any of the non profits who are operating some of the programs for Block Grant, probably the easiest way would be for people to call our number at the office, which

is 5 to 4 75 105 247 500. Okay, um what is the jurisdiction of the Sonoma County Community development condition? We are solely confined to Sonoma County, so it's all of Sonoma County and we do interact with all nine cities, but again, primarily the seven cities

except for santa rosa, Petaluma, although we are administering the Petaluma mobile home program and we do keep in close contact with the city of santa rosa because we jointly fund a lot of these programs. So it's everything in Sonoma County that has to do with affordable

housing or community development programs. That's where we're working, pause here. We're gonna pause just a moment for a break. I want to say on behalf of everybody in Sonoma County, thank you for the good job you've done over the years because you've worked very hard and

I know that you've accomplished a great deal. We're not through yet. We're going to pause here for a moment for another public service announcement after janie Walsh and I'll come back, we'll talk more about the housing authority or as it's now called the Community Development Commission.

First this message, imagine if nature packaged its products as wastefully as man, fortunately nature doesn't because packaging already accounts for nearly a third of the garbage in our landfills. So buy products with less packaging for more ideas on what you can do. Call us. Welcome

back to this edition of Sonoma County in the 90s, on occasion at the Jockey Club, the eastern side of the fairgrounds in Sonoma County. We have been talking with and are talking with Jenny Walsh, who is the executive directory of the director of the Community Development

Commission. I always want to run those together. Uh, Janie has been with us in the county here for 13 or 14 years. She's been head of the housing authorities, it was called and the title was changed and the job changed in some ways and became the

Community Development Commission still deals with housing programs. Janie. Let me read this question to you because there's a lot to it how much of the funding for your housing program depends on federal funding. And what does the future funding look like for the county? Good questions

Rich. I would estimate that probably 95% of our funding for the agency comes from federal sources. So we are dependent on the federal funds coming in to assist our local funds. Just could not support the kinds of programs and they are expensive programs when you are

dealing with the assistance needed by each family. So the, the second part to your question was uh, what does it look like in the future? And we all wish we had a crystal ball and we could know for sure what is going to happen. But I

think that we could all see from recent indications that the federal funds may become more scarce and that we have to be more creative to make sure that we understand the complex problems. And I think that is one of the lessons that we've learned in the

last decade. And that is, it's not only a simple problem of helping people with their rental assistance, that may be a major portion to help them, but there are often social services that are needed. There often reasons why the people can't maybe get jobs that would

pay for the kinds of rents that are asked in Sonoma County. There may be other kinds of social reasons that the funding cannot be used solely for the rental assistance. So we're in an age now where we really have to work with other agencies in the

county, find out what are the real sources of the problem and try to be more creative in finding out how to solve the real crux of the problems. Alright, what kind of new housing? I know you've been involved with a lot of things. What kind of

new housing has been building Sonoma County that people could call affordable. I would say there's been a lot and I'd break that down into two categories. First would be rental housing and that would be the uh, primarily rental housing that was built by Burbank housing by

some of the other nonprofits and private developers and that would be well over 500 units just in the last decade. We also have a list of very affordable apartment complexes where the assistance was built from Usage usage of federal funds many years ago. And anyone could

stop by the office, we can give them a list of the rental housing and those complexes that are available, sometimes very affordable rent in the $300 range. And the other area is in the affordable new housing and we have built several 1000 units in the Last

decade where they were affordable to first time homebuyers. And we're looking at probably another 500-700 units in the next five years that will be built just for first time homebuyers. So those two categories of first of affordable housing I think are are crucial estimate that the

county's been going through a reorganization process during the last year. What impact has that had on your office? It has had some impact in that. We were fortunate enough to have gone through a reorganization process in 1984. So we've had a decade of being reorganized as

an umbrella agency. We have the redevelopment agency, the housing authority block grant funds, the new home funds. We have many, many programs that are under the one agency and we are able to coordinate the staff and each side knows what the other is doing. So that

has been very helpful. And right now in the, in the future, we are working more closely with the human services department with the planning department. And I might mention, especially with the planning department in the area of the housing element update and recommended changes to the

board of supervisors. How how closely are you cooperating with the Planning department in regard to the housing element? What are the things that you're doing together? One of the major things that that has occurred was the report to the board of supervisors where they took about

3.5 hours of their time just for a workshop to look at the kinds of programs that the housing element has within its document today. And what are the recommendations for changes in that housing element? So they met on April 18 together with the planning staff and

my staff and we outlined all of the issues that we saw that were not just from a staffs viewpoint, but from all of the developers viewpoint. So that that whole document now will go back to the Planning commission, work with the planning staff and with our

staff and then be brought back to the board of supervisors for a possible general amendment uh for the general plan. So actually you said Planning Commission and what was the other department, you said you were working with the Planning department and Human services department services is

the former social services and Human services, a whole lot of other different things combined. And you are, how do you work with them? The primary way we're working right now is with the gain program. The gain program is to make sure that there are adequate jobs

for those people who are recipients of A. F. D. C. And our family Self Sufficiency program is the incentive program for those people who are on the section eight housing assistance in order to get off. So we're working together to help these people get into jobs

that will afford them the ability to get off of both program. So we're working very very closely. I know you work so hard to help people get off these things and it's been successful because a lot of them have and this is this proves the validity

of this need for this program. One quick question. We're down to about a minute. Is there a phone number for more information on these programs? Sure. 5247500 524-7500. And that will get the person to your department and from there you can get all the information you

need on this. Right okay. Thank you. Thank you buddy. Thanks for coming back. It's been a long time and we won't make it so long in the future because I know a lot of things are happening and now that you're working with the planning commission and

such and human services probably be new developments along those lines. So you plan to come back with us later in the year. Okay. Alright. Ladies and gentlemen, my guest has been a very charming woman and also very effective woman. She has been the director of the

Community Development Commission, the executive director. I should have and she has done a splendid job over the years and I think that if I know her she'll continue to exactly that. My name is Rich McGlinchey, the program Sonoma County in the nineties. We are on location

at the beautiful jockey club eastern side of central spare grounds where you can watch and wager on the horse races and have a lovely lunch and it's a very beautiful place to visit. You might want to come out. I'll see you next week with another member

of the county government families that said a moment ago, Dylan, goodbye. Good luck. Good health to each and every one of you.