Click here to read the entire article.

It has been 30 years since Mill Valley has built a 100% affordable housing project.
However, a group of residents calling themselves “Friends of Hauke Park” claims the city’s proposed 45-unit affordable project at 1 Hamilton Drive is conflicting with the city’s duty to “affirmatively further fair housing” as required by state housing mandates.

The group recently filed a petition with Marin County Superior Court in an attempt to thwart the project. However, as the executive director for the Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California private nonprofit organization serving Marin, Sonoma and Solano counties, it is clear to me that the group is misapplying the principle.

This is far from a violation. The project would constitute an important first step toward furthering fair housing in Mill Valley.

Federal and state law mandates that cities like Mill Valley, in their housing element in all other relevant activities, affirmatively further fair housing. This requirement goes beyond nondiscrimination in housing, and it includes proactively taking action to “overcome patterns of segregation and foster inclusive communities free from barriers that restrict access to opportunity” for communities of color, persons with disabilities, and others protected by fair housing law.

The petitioners seek to divide the city into “East Mill Valley” and “West” Mill Valley, or likewise divide the city by census tract. They claim it is a fair housing violation to choose to build the project in a census tract that has a 70% White population and a median family income of $124,083 (which are about median for Marin County) on the basis that the other census tracts in Mill Valley have an even greater White population and median income.

However, any way you slice it, the neighborhoods of Mill Valley are highly resourced, more affluent and less diverse as compared to the Bay Area as a whole. Developing affordable housing in any of these areas will serve to further housing opportunity and choice and overcome segregation, regardless of where other affordable housing is already located.

Click here to keep reading.

Click here to read the entire article.

​The California Mortgage Relief Program offers up to $80,000 in assistance to residents within specific income limits who have missed at least two mortgage payments or have overdue property taxes.
At the end of July, the delinquency cutoff date for missed payments was expanded from March 1 to Aug. 1, 2023.

“We understand many homeowners are still grappling with the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Rebecca Franklin, president of the CalHFA Homeowner Relief Corp., in a statement. “Resetting the delinquency date means more families can now qualify for our program.”
​
But due to limited outreach efforts, the program has gone somewhat under the radar, officials and advocates acknowledge. They say they are trying to get the word out to the many struggling homeowners who may benefit. 

They add that because of requirements including mortgage type and size, qualifying for the money can be more difficult in the Bay Area — one of the most expensive housing markets in the country. And even for those who may qualify, the application process can be daunting, advocates say.
​
Here’s a look at the program and advice from officials and advocates on how to find out if you qualify, how to apply, and what to do if at first you don’t succeed.

​Click here to keep reading.

Click here to read the entire article.

Airbnb, the short-term-rental behemoth, announced today that it’s putting “Rooms”—the concept that basically jump-started the sharing-economy movement back in 2008—front and center on its platform. 
​
This “touches the soul of the company,” said Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky in a press conference ahead of the announcement. Though the company has always offered travelers the ability to book a room in a shared space—the original Airbnb proposition—those lower-budget stays took the backseat over the past decade as the company emphasized its inventory of entire houses and apartments, and even staffed luxury villas.

With the relaunched Rooms, Airbnb is highlighting these shared spaces in a tab right on the home screen, allowing travelers to more easily search for them. It’s also eliminating some of the discomfort around staying with a stranger by including a “Host Passport” alongside each listing, which includes biographical info about the host, along with dating app-style prompts about their personality. 
​
This focus on Rooms could help the company earn back goodwill from travelers who have become increasingly vocal about rising prices on Airbnb. (The average daily rate of an Airbnb listing has increased 36% since 2019, according to David Stephenson on the company’s most recent earnings call.) Currently, Airbnb has one million Rooms on its platform, with an average price of $65 a night, said Chesky. Along with Rooms, the company is also introducing new features that make it easier for travelers to see the total price of a stay for any style of accommodation, to avoid sticker shock. They’re part of a larger push by the company to fix some of its core design issues.

Click here to keep reading.

Click here to read the entire article.

Lea este artículo en español.

Section 8 vouchers have been one of the federal government’s landmark responses to unaffordable housing for half a century. But too often in California, families sit on a waitlist for years only to see their once-golden ticket expire before they can find a home.

A fresh batch of emergency vouchers became available last year to address growing housing insecurity during the deadly COVID-19 pandemic — and local and federal officials watching their rollout believe the new vouchers’ features already offer some promising solutions to a broken system.
​
Housing choice vouchers, added in 1974 to Section 8 of the federal Housing Act of 1937, allow low-income tenants to pay only 30% of their income toward rent and utilities while Uncle Sam shoulders the rest. These vouchers have helped pay rent for more than 300,000 households in California this year, totaling $1.9 billion in assistance.

Click here to keep reading.

Click here to read the entire article.

If this week is any indication, Attorney General Rob Bonta is on a mission.
On Wednesday, he announced that his office would conduct an independent investigationinto last year’s redistricting in the city of Los Angeles following the explosive publication of a secretly recorded meeting in which three city council members and an influential labor leader could be heard making racist comments, insulting their colleagues and plotting how to draw city council district boundaries to consolidate Latino political power.

• Bonta said in a statement: “The decennial redistricting process is foundational for our democracy and for the ability of our communities to make their voices heard — and it must be above reproach. The leaked audio has cast doubt on a cornerstone of our political processes for Los Angeles.” 
• Nury Martinez, who stepped down as council president on Monday, announced her resignation Wednesday. Gov. Gavin Newsom applauded the move, but stopped short of calling on Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo, the other council members present at the meeting, to resign. The governor’s reticence marks a sharp departure from other top Democratic officials: President Joe Biden on Tuesday said all three council members should step down. 

Also Wednesday, Bonta issued an update on his office’s efforts to limit the spread of fentanyl, a super-powerful synthetic opioid largely responsible for record-high fatal overdoses in California. Since April 2021, Bonta said, his office has seized more than 4 million fentanyl pills and nearly 900 pounds of fentanyl powder and performed more than 200 arrests. 

• The update may have also served as an implicit clapback at Nathan Hochman, the Republican former federal prosecutor running against Bonta for attorney general. Hochman has repeatedly slammed his Democratic opponent for failing to act aggressively on fentanyl, including in a campaign ad that says California has seen a 2,100% uptick since 2016 in the number of residents under age 24 dying from fentanyl poisoning.

Click here to keep reading.

Click here to read the entire article.

SONOMA COUNTY, CA — Section 8 renters in three North Bay counties including Sonoma face widespread discrimination, a newly released report alleges.

Tests conducted in Sonoma County revealed the highest incidence of race discrimination (63 percent) and source of income discrimination (88 percent), with 92 percent revealing at least some evidence of either or both, according to the Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California (FHANC) study’s findings.

California residents receiving housing choice vouchers (also known as “Section 8”) are protected from discrimination under amendments to the California Fair Employment and Housing Act made in January 2020.
The amendments made it illegal to discriminate against or exclude tenants and applicants because they have a Section 8 voucher.

Housing providers in Solano County evidenced the least discrimination, with 32 percent of tests revealing evidence of race discrimination and 44 percent revealing evidence of source of income discrimination.
​
Click here to keep reading.

Click here to read the entire article.

MARIN COUNTY, CA — Section 8 renters in three North Bay counties including Marin face widespread discrimination, a newly released report alleges.

Two thirds of Marin landlords in eight municipalities revealed at least some evidence of discrimination based on race, income, or both, according to the Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California (FHANC) study’s findings.

The San Rafael-based nonprofit investigated properties in Greenbrae, Kentfield, Larkspur, Mill Valley, Novato, San Anselmo, San Rafael, and Sausalito.

California residents receiving housing choice vouchers (also known as “Section 8”) are protected from discrimination under amendments to the California Fair Employment and Housing Act made in January 2020.
​
The amendments made it illegal to discriminate against or exclude tenants and applicants because they have a Section 8 voucher.

Click here to keep reading.

Click here to read the entire article.

MARIN COUNTY, CA — A Marin landlord has agreed to comply with state law and pay a fair housing advocacy group $25,000 after allegedly refusing to accept housing vouchers, the state’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing said Wednesday in a news release.

A housing discrimination complaint filed by Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California (FHANC) precipitated the agreement, the DFEH said.

The complaint alleged that the owners of Bon Air Apartments, a large Greenbrae apartment complex refused to rent to prospective tenants who would have used housing choice (formerly known as Section 8) vouchers to help pay their rent.

State law prohibits discrimination based on a tenant’s source of income, including use of a housing choice voucher.

The dispute was resolved through mediation with the DFEH’s Dispute Resolution Division.

​Click here to keep reading.

Bob Egelko
June 2, 2022 (Updated: June 5, 2022 6:50 p.m.)

Click here to read the entire article in the San Francisco Chronicle.

An anti-discrimination group says it has settled its case against owners of an apartment complex in Marin County who had refused to offer any of their 646 units to anyone in the Section 8 program, which provides financial aid to low-income renters.

Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California said it was contacted in 2020 by a woman who said she had wanted to rent an apartment at Bon Air Apartments in Greenbrae but had been told by the owners, Greenbrae Management, that they did not accept vouchers under Section 8, which are subsidized by the federal government. Such refusals are permitted by federal law but are prohibited by California law, which since 2019 has barred housing discrimination based on the source of a renter’s income.
​
The advocacy group said it started holding workshops for property owners in the area to inform them of the law, and posted flyers in stores, restaurants and other business locations in Marin and Sonoma counties. It also filed a complaint with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing and sent its own investigators, posing as renters, to Greenbrae Management.