Marin County and its city and town leaders are embarking on a new effort to keep residents from being forced to leave their homes and neighborhoods.
Housing “displacement” is the focus of a new countywide survey aimed at gathering data on who is at risk and guiding recommendations for municipal action.
The survey was crafted to illuminate the mechanics of displacement that force residents to leave Marin because of the high cost of living or other factors, said Leelee Thomas, a housing official at the Marin County Community Development Agency.
It was developed by the Housing Working Group, a collaborative made up of staff from the county and Marin’s cities and towns whose work focuses on affordable housing, coordination around housing elements, housing policy and funding.
The county-run program is called Rooted in Marin — an outreach and education effort to zero in on local concerns about displacement. The county hired the Berkeley housing consultant Community Planning Collaborative in March to manage the countywide stakeholder engagement process for Rooted in Marin. The cost is $200,000 over two years.
“We’ve done a number of joint projects through the housing element, but one thing we are working on now is around housing element implementation,” Thomas said. “People are having to leave their communities. The goal of this anti-displacement is to find what policies we can work on together.”
The county and its cities and towns are required by the state to allow 14,405 more residences during the eight-year planning cycle ending in 2031.
The survey is open through Sept. 9 at bit.ly/rootedinmarinsurvey.