Marin county approves plan for affordable housing project
On Tuesday, Marin County moved one step closer to building the largest affordable development project in the unincorporated parts of the county in nearly 50 years.
It is a two-part building project targeted for working families, one of them specifically for educators. They are planned for an 8.5-acre elevated site on state-owned land that faces west on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard between San Quentin Rehabilitation Center and Drake's Cove Road. Called Oak Hill Apartments, it is a partnership between nonprofit developers Eden Housing and Education Housing Partners.
The Marin County Board of Supervisors approved nearly $5 million in loans from the Marin County Affordable Housing Trust Fund for the two projects.
The board also authorized the county's Community Development Agency to apply for a $2.6 million grant from the California Department of Housing and Community Development. The state has a $53 million fund specifically designed to match local housing trust funds like Marin County's.
According to Leelee Thomas, the county's deputy director of housing, the most competitive applications for the state fund will be for projects with 100% rental housing that serves households with incomes of 60% of the area median income.
Thomas provided examples for the board.
"A household of three with an income of about $141,000 is about 80% of area median income," she said. "That could be a dispatcher and a sheriff's assistant with one child."
"A household of three who earns about $117,000 is considered 60% of the area median income and that could be an experienced teacher at Redwood High School with two children," she said.
"The household of three, who earns about $53,000, is considered extremely low income, or 30% of the area median income," said Thomas. "An example of employment for that person could be a paraeducator at the county Office of Education with two children."
The project, as proposed, will include two residential communities that will share common infrastructure. Both will have one-, two- and three-bedroom apartment homes. The development will feature sustainable design and drought-tolerant landscaping.
The Eden Housing portion will include 115 units of affordable rental housing. Out of those, 95 are for low and very low-income households and 18 for extremely low-income households. A loan of $975,000 from Marin County's Affordable Housing Fund already went to Eden Housing for predevelopment costs.
The other side, specifically for educators, will be built by Education Housing Partners Inc. It will include 135 units of workforce rental housing for income-qualifying teachers, staff as well as county employees. Of those, 86 are for low and very low-income households.
"To be competitive for the state funds, the county must make a commitment to these projects before the application is submitted of at least three times the amount that we're applying for," said Thomas, who describes the project as exciting.
Thomas said the county has also approved affordable housing outside the unincorporated town of Point Reyes Station. West Marin was recently cited in a report co-sponsored by the Marin Community Foundation that revealed a dramatic shortage of farmworker housing.
"It is an old Coast Guard property that was sold to the county a number of years ago , and they are doing a renovation of that Coast Guard staff housing," Thomas said. "It will become affordable housing, as well as a set-aside for people who work in agriculture."
A joint project of Eden Housing and the Community Land Trust of West Marin, the Coast Guard project has received its environmental permit and is starting to raise funds.