College of Marin considers role in workforce housing plan
College of Marin officials have taken a step toward accepting a proposal to guarantee rental revenue at an education workforce housing complex in Larkspur.
The college trustees, acting at their March 11 board meeting, directed staff to vet the guarantor program for the Oak Hill apartment complex and come back with a preliminary resolution by the April board meeting. The plan could involve guaranteeing rental income on nine or 18 apartments.
The trustees will review the reports and decide whether to ask staff to prepare a final resolution by May.
Trustees said an affordable housing project for faculty and other employees was something the college has wanted for a long time to improve staff recruitment and retention.
Wanden Treanor, the board’s vice president, noted that the college once sought to build a workforce housing complex at the Indian Valley Campus in Novato.
“We’ve been talking about this since the 1990s,” Treanor said. “Now, 20 years later, the lack of affordable housing is having a negative impact on the health of our community.”
Treanor said that while the guarantor program does carry some risk, it “pales in comparison to what we’re spending in recruiting, hiring and training people — and then having them leave.”
Trustee Diana Conti said the proposal “seems like a sound plan.”
“I guess some could make the case that this is not our job,” Conti said. “But that’s not the times that we’re living in.”
The planned complex would place 135 apartments on 8 acres of state-owned land near San Quentin. The development is expected to offer below-market rents, mostly for education employees and about a quarter for other public employees.
Because of rising interest rates, the budget for the project has about a $17.4 million shortfall, according to Matthew Hymel, executive director of the Marin County Public Financing Authority, the agency that is overseeing the project.
About $10 million of the shortfall could be offset if five major Marin public education and government entities join the guarantor program, Hymel told the college trustees at their meeting.
A 100% guarantee from the five entities would lower the interest rate 1 percentage point and save $10 million, “which would mean a reduction of $400 per month in rent for each apartment for a year,” Hymel said.
Hymel said the budget calls for all or most of the rents to be offered for people earning between 50% to 80% of the area median income. For a three-person household, for example, half the median income is $88,150 per year.
The entities would be responsible for the rental incomes for apartments that are vacant for a year or more. However, the authority has set up several vacancy mitigation measures, such as the use of housing waiting lists, to lessen the risk.
“If you were to consider doing your own workforce housing project, this one is much less risky,” Hymel said.
Although most of the apartments would have one bedroom, some of the two- or three-bedroom apartments could be rented to tenants with incomes at 80% to 120% of the area median income. Some critics have said that it appears that 49 apartments would go to tenants at the highest income levels.
Hymel said later that while there is some flexibility, the authority does not expect to use it. The project’s budget is planned so that none of the apartments would go to those earning beyond 80% of the area median income, he said.
In addition to College of Marin, the agency is seeking the support of the Novato Unified School District, San Rafael City Schools, the Marin County Office of Education and the county. So far, College of Marin and the Novato district have agreed to look into it. The agency plans presentations with the other three in April.