The Mast-Head: Another’s Housing Crisis
It was surprising at the beginning of the week to find myself in an art gallery in a small town in Northern California looking at photographs calling attention to that community’s housing crisis. The photographer, whose name by the time I wrote this, had slipped my mind, embarked on a project to document the people who have been displaced as the coastal unincorporated town of Bolinas changed rapidly in the past few years.
The blame, at least in the view of the photographer, lay in the fact that an increasing number of rentals were now listed online for short-term vacations — as on our own South Fork. This pulled potential residences from the pool available for the area’s workers, with the greatest impact among Latinos. The black-and-white images showed families, young couples, and older singles.
All the proceeds from the photos’ sales, after printing costs, were to be given to those in need of assistance. But more than that, the photographer wrote in an explanation posted on a wall, steps had to be taken to support landlords who choose to offer long-term rentals instead of short ones with revolving doors. Marin County, the statement said, was among the wealthiest in the United States; much more had to be done to assure its work force had places to live.
One can understand where the property owners are coming from. Short-term rentals result in less wear and tear, and, in many cases, the money is better. Renting year-round can be demanding as tenants’ needs evolve; opting for the short term mean hosts can shut down whenever they choose just by refusing to accept a booking or taking a listing offline. And weekenders rarely show up with a bunch of furniture and pets or want to repaint all the bedrooms.
As in the Hamptons, this adds up to a serious disruption of the bottom of the housing market. This is a huge social justice issue as the cost of commuting into affluent areas, like East Hampton or Bolinas, helps eat up income that might otherwise be spent on essentials or put away toward savings, education, or building a business of one’s own.
The $400 prints in the gallery were not of themselves going to solve West Marin’s housing crisis, but by drawing attention to it, they might just help. As for the East End, there is a proposed legislative solution in the form of loans for down payments on house purchases. But even that program, should it come into being, would deal only with workers already secure enough to buy a house; it would not help assure access to affordable rentals among those just starting out or of modest means.
Meanwhile, the Wainscott School Board has taken it upon itself to seek to block a town effort to build a small number of affordable apartments in that district. Signs are not good for a serious solution anytime soon. In fact, judging from the number of online listings, it’s only getting worse — all over.