photo credit: Clay Gililand/wikimedia
Park-goers enjoying the Healdsburg Plaza, which fronts Matheson Street on its south side.

Proponents see them as nimble non-profits, well-positioned to help build new homes in local communities.

Housing land trusts, which can buy and even build, are seen as an inventive way to make affordable housing available, and they're becoming more popular.

Healdsburg is looking to be home to the latest housing land trust in Sonoma County.

"Nonprofit trusts have a little more flexibility than what a typical city housing department has," said Healdsburg's housing director Stephen Sotomayor, while discussing the proposed Healdsburg Housing Trust at the city council meeting on March 2nd.

The a housing trust works is similar to a wilderness land trust.

The independent nonprofit buys property for a specific purpose, in this case, properties suited for building new homes.

A housing land trust would be able to go after philanthropic dollars as well as public grants, but isn't meant to try and compete with the city, or replace existing affordable housing programs.

The housing trust model already exists in places like San Francisco, Sacramento, and West Marin.

That's where CLAM, the Community Land Trust Association of West Marin, has been working to build temporary housing for farm workers and their families evicted from the Point Reyes National Seashore, as part of a settlement ending most ranching operations in the park.

Healdsburg's potential new land trust would focus on more urban properties within the city.

Richard Burg is one of the Healdsburg residents working to bring about the housing trust. He says he hopes it will alleviate a long standing issue in the city.

"So, 21 years ago, several hundred people at an event in the plaza called Town Picnic and Concert, answered a question on poster paper," Burg recounted. "What single change would most improve the quality of your life in Healdsburg? The answer was affordable housing, and that was in 2005."

City officials say, now, land availability within Healdsburg is a major hurdle for building new homes, especially looking ahead to the city's next Regional Housing Needs Allocation - that's a state mandated target for new housing construction.

Proponents see a housing land trust as another useful, and tailored, tool for the city to lean on for building new homes.

Especially new mid-rate units that fall between the low income designated housing which cities like Healdsburg can build with grant funds, and higher end market rate projects more appealing to developers.

Former Healdsburg city council member Joe Naujokas is helping form the Healdsburg Housing Trust. He said he sees accessible housing as core to Healdsburg's strength, what he dubbed the "Matheson Street effect."

"On that one block, you have multi-million dollar homes literally within stone's throw of small apartment block buildings," Naujokas said. "Everybody's getting along fine. We are we are living together, we are sharing these experiences. We're neighbors. That to me is what Healdsburg is all about. We cannot sustain that community identity without nurturing that diverse housing."

The proposed Healdsburg Housing Trust has support from community members, including housing developers, as well as the city's council, but concern about the potential sway of large donors on the housing trust was raised during recent public discussion.

The housing trust is still in it's early formation stages, and Naujokas and others behind the effort say they're looking to raise initial funding for start up costs, before coming to the city with formal actions or purchasing the trust's first property.