3/17/25, 3:45 PM Mail - Lindsay Lara - Outlook
Outlook
Community Response to Housing Element Annual Progress Report From Carly Finkle
Date Mon 3/17/2025 3:27 PM
To Distrib- City Clerk < [email protected]>; Mayor Kate < [email protected]>; Maika Llorens Gulati <[email protected]>; Eli Hill <[email protected]>; Rachel Kertz <[email protected]>; Maribeth Bushey <[email protected]> Cc [email protected] ›; Chandra Alexandre 4 Laura McMahon : Cristine Alilovich < [email protected]> O 1 attachment (227 KB)
Community Response to SR Housing Element APR 031725. pdf; Good Afternoon Lindsay, Mayor Kate, Councilmembers Llorens-Gulati, Hill, Kertz, and Bushey, and Cristine, I hope you are all doing well and staying dry. Ahead of the City's presentation on the Housing Element Annual Progress Report at tonight's Council meeting, Canal Alliance, Community Action Marin, and Legal Aid of Marin would like to share the attached comments on behalf of our organizations and the community members we work with. A huge thanks to all of you and the City staff that have worked so hard on the progress that has been made in these first two years. We look forward to continuing to work together to further affordable housing in the City and getting creative with the challenges ahead.
Best,
Carly
Carly Finkle
SENIOR POLICY MANAGER
Main: (415) 454-2640
canalalliance.org | donate
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AID of
UNITY CANAL MARIN
ACTION ALLIANCE Justice for all
MARIN
March 17, 2025
Re: Community Response to San Rafael's Housing Element Annual Progress Report Dear Mayor Colin, Councilmembers Llorens-Gulati, Kertz, Hill, and Bushey, and Team San Rafael:
We represent a coalition of Marin nonprofits working collectively to address the structural and systemic drivers of San Rafael's housing crisis, which disproportionately affect Latino immigrant, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities, and other lower-income residents. We write to provide comments on the March 17, 2025 Housing Element Annual Progress Report (APR).
Our organizations have been proud to partner closely with the City of San Rafael to support the substantive progress made on the implementation of Housing Element, including the successful rollout of Spanish-language housing workshops (Program 8), the preservation of a 9-unit apartment building at 1400 Lincoln Ave (Program 16), planning for the Southeast San Rafael Specific Plan (Program 21) and participation in the Rooted in Marin process for examining Tenant Protections (Program 11). We are grateful for the Council's decisive action to approve an April 2024 temporary urgency ordinance to strengthen tenant protections in the Opportunity Zone. The City's deep collaboration with residents and nonprofits reflects a critical shift toward a collective, systems-level approach to housing stability and tenant protection.
In addition to having participated with the City on many of its APR actions, we have now reviewed the APR included in tonight's report. While it is the Council's responsibility to determine whether the APR is correct, we see no obvious omissions.
Instead, what we do see is how much remains to be done, especially on tenant protections and the production of affordable housing. On tenant protections, the Rooted in Marin process is coming to an end, and it is critically important that Council and Staff act now. On production, it is clear that we are falling behind already on our production goals for all the affordable sections of RHNA. More is needed from the City and its partners to jumpstart affordable housing production. In the following sections, we explain in more detail these two issues. 1 Program 11: Tenant Protections
The Housing Element committed the City to participate in a Countywide process for examining all tenant protection measures available in order to identify which could be appropriate for Marin Jurisdictions. That process, entitled Rooted In Marin, is now largely complete. Many of our organizations and Voces del Canal members participated in this activity in good faith, and the County will soon release a finished report with analysis of possible policies the City and the County can pursue. We appreciate the fact that the City participated in Rooted in Marin, which is mentioned in the APR.
Now is the time for the City to commit to a course of action which will result in stronger tenant protections for San Rafael residents. We believe the City should commit to. not only reviewing existing tenant protection policies, but to adopting a comprehensive, systems-based strategy that strengthens protections, prevents displacement, and creates long-term housing stability in the Summer of 2025.
We strongly urge Council to immediately leverage the forthcoming Rooted in Marin report as a guiding resource for a systems-based anti-displacement strategy that addresses the root causes of housing instability and strengthens the city's housing ecosystem. This report highlights many of the priorities that community members have been calling for, including actions that the City can take independently and in partnership with the County of Marin.
Many, if not most of the ideas in this report, are ones our organizations have been encouraging the City to consider for some time. These include:
• Preventing unnecessary evictions: Strengthen the citywide Just Cause Ordinance to limit permanent eviction for substantial renovation, withdrawals from rental market, and move-ins of family members and subletters.
• Supporting people who have been displaced: Strengthen the citywide Relocation Assistance Ordinance to better align with the higher payments required under the Opportunity Zone Urgency Ordinance.
• Preventing rent burden: Establish a reasonable cap on rent increases and limit opaque and deceptive charges to ensure transparency and predictability in housing costs for both landlords and tenants.
• Preparing for an emergency: Establish an ordinance that would be triggered when a state of emergency is declared for wildfires, flooding, landslides, or other disasters impacting a significant portion of San Rafael's housing stock. When triggered, this ordinance should temporarily establish protections to prevent evictions, price-gouging, and land grabs.
We urge the City to build a stronger, multi-level partnership with the County of Marin to create a coordinated, cross-jurisdictional housing strategy that leverages collective resources and strengthens housing stability across the region. This includes:
2 • Establishing a rent registry: Opt into the County's rent registry to track rent increases, evictions, and ownership, which will help the City gain a better understanding of the nature of property ownership in San Rafael and support effective policy-making.
Establishing a rent board: Work to collaboratively establish a rent board to oversee and enforce existing protections for participating jurisdictions. • Expanding access to counsel: Strengthen access to legal representation to help prevent unjust evictions and address issues like improper rent increases or unsafe living conditions.
In addition to aligning with the community priorities expressed in the Housing Element and many of the best practices identified through Rooted in Marin, these recommendations align with MTC Transit-Oriented Communities Policies. Future MTC One Bay Area Grant (OBAG) funding cycles will prioritized jurisdictions that have passed pro-housing policies. San Rafael has been awarded OBAG grants in the past, and aligning with their policy recommendations would allow us to remain competitive in future cycles.
San Rafael faces growing climate threats, including sea level rise, wildfires, and extreme heat, which directly impact housing stability. A climate-resilient housing strategy that integrates tenant protections and infrastructure improvements is essential to ensuring long-term community stability. These recommendations also align with best practices to prevent green gentrification and displacement from climate investments, as outlined in the 2024 report Decarbonizing California Equitably: A Guide to Tenant Protections in Building Upgrades/Retrofits Throughout the State.
Some of these are actions that the City can take on its own, and some will require partnerships with the County, other jurisdictions, or nonprofit partners. We urge the City to specifically instruct staff to analyze all possible actions with this partnership in mind. The fact that the City cannot act alone should not be a justification for not pursuing partnerships that will be able to deliver the service needed at enough scale to be affordable and sustainable for a jurisdiction of our size.
Program 16: Funding for Affordable Housing
The initial Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) numbers should be cause for renewed action by the City. We urge the city to work with us and other partners in the County to examine new ways to jumpstart Affordable Housing production. With the Federal situation, this local approach will be even more needed.
To support the long-term production and preservation of affordable housing and create a more resilient housing system, we recommend increasing funding for affordable housing by increasing the City's Affordable Housing Trust Fund cap from the current limit of $250,000 per year.
The City should also work with local organizations, developers and housing industry professionals to develop a more concrete plan that addresses our housing crisis more systematically. We can take actions locally to realize ambitious housing goals, and to build a 3 stronger housing development industry that can actually meet the needs of San Rafael residents.
We thank the City for its partnership and look forward to working together to develop and enact a comprehensive, systems-based anti-displacement strategy that addresses the root causes of housing instability and strengthens the housing ecosystem for the long term.
Sincerely,
Chandra Alexande
Chandra Alexandre Laura McMahon Omar Carrera
Chief Executive Director Executive Director Chief Executive Director Community Action Marin Legal Aid of Marin Canal Alliance 4