Un-Affordable Housing

by Andreas Wittenstein

We who live in Marin are fortunate to have found homes in paradise. With one of the most diverse and well-preserved natural environments on the continent, yet connected to a world-class city by a golden gate, we enjoy an extraordinary melding of small-town community spirit with cosmopolitan sophistication. All this makes Marin one of the most desirable places to live. And one of the most expensive.

Marin has become so expensive that few people who work here can afford to live here. The median salary in Marin is only $32,000 per year, which is 12% below the Bay Area average. Yet housing prices here are the second-highest in the country: the median 2-bedroom rent here is $18,000 per year, and the mortgage payment on a median-priced home of $380,000 is still higher, even at today's bargain rates. This means most people who work and live here can count on paying more than half their income on housing.

Some stay even though they can't afford housing. About 3,000 people in Marin are homeless, including members of our own Congregation.

Many move away. Twelve pupils in the Lagunitas School District are leaving Marin in the middle of the term because their families can no longer afford to live here.

The lack of affordable housing threatens everything that makes this paradise so desirable. All these commuting vehicles pollute our beautiful natural environment. Their traffic jams vitiate our proximity to San Francisco culture. And all these absent commuters dissipate our community spirit.

What can we do to solve this crisis? Pay our workers high enough. Charge our renters low enough. Help the homeless among us find work and shelter. Now is a good time for political action. By January 1, 2002, each of the 11 towns and the unincorporated area of Marin is required by California law (Section 65584) to update our housing plans to reflect assessed housing needs. For more information, contact Betty Pagett, Co-Chair, Marin Housing Council, at 256-1800.

—from our November 2001 Newsletter

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