Novato Housing CoaliTion

Homes to match our people

@Home in Novato December 2009    

 

 

Candidates Forum draws capacity crowd

In September, the Novato Housing Coalition was a lead partner in hosting a Candidate’s Forum that had the largest attendance of any Candidates Forum

ever held in Novato. Entitled, What’s Going to Happen to Novato?, over ninety people packed the City Council chambers at the school district Board Room to listen to five candidates respond to six carefully chosen questions regarding Novato’s future for affordable housing, sustainability, the local economy, and SMART station planning.

 

Using a format different than the traditional one of taking questions from the floor, representatives of each sponsoring organization met as a team with each candidate to discuss the issues and questions to be asked at the Forum. This allowed for a great deal of education and discussion to occur with each candidate on the issues facing us in Novato as well as establish and strengthen our relationship with each of them. During the Forum, answers were scribed on large flip charts at the front of the room and questions were taken from the floor. The Forum was televised and shown throughout the campaign season on Channel 26.

 

This very successful Forum was sponsored by Novato Housing Coalition, Marin Community Foundation, Sustainable Novato, and Greenbelt Alliance.

 

Stay tuned!

Clap your hands and mark your calendars for the evening of March 4, 2010! The Novato Housing Coalition will be bringing the “Marin Tones” barber shop quartet to town to serve up a tuneful of songs guaranteed to entertain you.

The Quartet has performed at the Marin Civic Center and at high-end restaurants for movie star patrons  Invitations and tickets will be mailed in early 2010 for this special fun filled event to be held under the big top in the Next Key Room at Homeward Bound.

 

Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco has introduced its first home in Marin County after more than 15 years of efforts to bring affordable housing from Habitat to the county. With growing community support, Habitat has

acquired a vacant and neglected foreclosed home in Novato as part of its Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP) — helping to revitalize neighborhoods

that have been destabilized by foreclosures and creating responsible homeownership opportunities for local working families. With the rehabilitation of NRP homes, Habitat hopes to transform neglected properties into beacons of hope for the community. Habitat launched the NRP in Menlo Park in May 2009 and expanded the program to Marin in October.

 

Families selected for the Habitat program earn less than 60 percent of the area median income and purchase their homes with no down payment and a zero-interest mortgage. The family selection process for the Novato home is currently underway at Habitat. Two orientation meetings were held in November at the Novato Human Needs Center and Novato Senior Access (now Marin Adult Day Health Center), followed by two application turn-in meetings in December, where Habitat accepted completed applications from families interested in acquiring the Habitat home.

 

Over the coming weeks, Habitat will conduct a series of screenings and family interviews, and hopes to select the new partner family by the end of January. Habitat has also begun the selection process for its second NRP home in Marin and welcomes volunteers from the Novato Housing Coalition to sit on Habitat’s Family Selection Committee or assist in reaching out to potential partner families. The committee will be formed in early January 2010. NHC members can contact Jocelyn Beaufort (jbeaufort@habitatgsf.org), Homeowner Development Manager at Habitat, for more details.

 

Planning your future

The General Plan Update Committee has been hard at work, especially on the North Redwood Boulevard project. The Committee walked the area to get a better feel for conditions as they currently exist. There is a general feeling among many committee members that Redwood Boulevard needs to be narrowed to eliminate the dividing effect it has on the area. Such could also free up valuable land for more accessible public use, such as a town plaza.

 

Some members also participated in a walk in downtown San Rafael led by San Rafael city officials. The San Rafael folks shared their experiences over the past 15 years in which they went from a vision to a realization of their plan. One key to the

success of their downtown area has been the inclusion of housing in the downtown area, with an emphasis on affordable housing. They didn’t necessarily build affordable housing because it was required, but rather because it was what they

wanted to do.

 

The Committee met in December to identify preferred land use scenarios for North Redwood Blvd. That discussion will continue in January.

 

From the Chair…

Whoa! What a year 2009 has been!

Novato Housing Coalition’s 2009 highlights are:

· Forging strong partnerships with other groups, including Sustainable Novato, Grassroots Leadership Network, Marin Environmental Housing Collaborative, Homeward Bound, and Greenbelt Alliance. These groups have been in close contact for the past nine months to collaboratively advocate for increased low-income housing opportunities in Novato.

· Our highly successful Candidates’ Forum in late September drew a big audience and helped to frame campaign issues. (See article on Forum.) With Sustainable Novato, NHC jointly sponsored another well attended Community Forum last February on “Creating Sustainable Communities” NHC is working with representatives of other Novato groups, including the Chamber of Commerce, to participate in public hearings on the proposed Commons at Mt. Burdell development.

· With this group of advocates, NHC is working with the developer, American Assets, to find a way to make as many of the proposed 150 rental units as affordable as possible.

· With its partner organizations, NHC has evaluated potential affordable housing sites for the Site Inventory, which is a State-required exhibit to the revised Housing Element. Our analysis has been presented to City staff. We will participate actively in the public review of a revised Housing Element, planned for this spring.

These are just some of the highlights. Thanks to all of you who attended forums and public hearings and supported NHC throughout the year. 2010 will be another busy year because so many land use planning efforts will continue (Housing Element Revision, North Redwood Plan, General Plan Update, and Commons at Mt. Burdell).

Thank you in advance for your continued support and the best to you in the New Year!

 

Stay tuned for the premier of NHC’s video production, At Home in Novato.

 

Thank you!

With your community support, Novato Housing Coalition continues to work diligently to ensure that our family members can continue to afford to live in Novato and to ensure that our workers can afford to sleep where they work. If you can financially support our work, please do so. Every small gift helps a lot. To make a donation as a special tribute in honor of, or in memory of, or to celebrate an occasion, please include the name of the person honored, plus the name and address of the person to be notified. We will be happy to notify them of your gift.

 

The quiet champion

By Evelyn Swenson

During this hard economic time the name of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is frequently mentioned. He is described as the President who led this country out of the Great Depression back in the 1930s and gave the citizens cause to sing “Happy

Days Are Here Again” and believe in the New Deal. Yes, President Roosevelt did enact laws to help the country and its citizens, but it was with the help of others. There is one individual in particular you have probably never heard of - Frances Perkins - the only female who was appointed by FDR to serve as the Secretary of Labor. Her persistent “bugging” of FDR pushed him into legislation that began to help the country. And, incidentally, she wrote most of the new laws. And, her foresight brought into being the laws which still benefit all of us today.

 

Under her dedicated guidance in the thirties, we still enjoy the Economic Security Act (ESA), which covers Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, the Fair Labor Standards Act, The WPA (Works Progress Administration), and the CCC (Civilian

Conservation Corp).

 

My older brother served in the CCC. The army was pressed into service to erect the barracks and cooked/served the meals. The CCC workers earned the magnificent sum of $30.00 per month. Twenty five dollars was sent to the workers family, and the worker was allowed to keep 5.00 per month. I remember my mother’s appreciation for the “grocery money” - there were four family members still living

at home.

 

The ironic twist to the ESA was that it originally included national health insurance.

Opposition by the AMA caused the health insurance to be stricken from the act. When your next SS check arrives, say a silent, “Thank You”, to Frances for her dogged persistence and to FDR for his faith in her judgment.