Building community: A collaborative approach to a crisis

By Annie O’Connor and Jarrod Russell. Reprinted with permission from the Point Reyes Light.

Across West Marin, rising housing costs and the loss of longstanding rentals, particularly on ranches, are placing mounting pressure on working families who have long called this community home. In response, the region’s four nonprofit housing organizations have joined forces through the West Marin Housing Collaborative, a partnership grounded in coordination, efficiency and shared purpose. To understand why this collaborative matters, it helps to begin with the model at the heart of the work: the Community Land Trust.

A C.L.T. is a nonprofit that owns land on behalf of the community and ensures it is used for long-term public benefit. Unlike conventional real estate, where land and buildings are bought and sold together on the open market, C.L.T.s separate land ownership from building ownership. The C.L.T. retains ownership of the land, while residents rent or own the homes. This structure removes housing from speculation and guarantees permanent affordability, generation after generation. Homeowners can still build equity and receive a fair return when they sell, but the home remains affordable for the next household.

The model has deep roots, emerging during the civil rights movement as a tool to keep communities intact in the face of displacement—a challenge West Marin knows well. Today, hundreds of C.L.T.s operate nationwide, adapted to local needs but united by a shared goal: putting people and community ahead of profit.

Here, that goal has never been more urgent. Geographic isolation, coastal regulation, environmental protections, high land costs and complex septic requirements make development especially difficult. Unlike other parts of the county, West Marin cannot rely on large apartment buildings or high-density developments to meet demand. Instead, most opportunities come from scattered sites, small parcels and adaptive reuse—approaches that are more complex and costly but also essential in a rural landscape.

Over the past 25 years, the Community Land Trust Association of West Marin, the Bolinas Community Land Trust, Two Valleys Community Land Trust and the Stinson Beach Affordable Housing Committee have collectively created about 100 units of permanently affordable housing. Yet the need far exceeds that number. Recent ranch closures and enforcement actions have placed nearly 70 households, many of them Latino families who form the backbone of the workforce, at imminent risk of displacement. Recognizing that no single organization could respond at scale, these groups formed the West Marin Housing Collaborative with support from the West Marin Fund, the Marin Community Foundation and the county.

The collaborative’s purpose is simple but powerful: to work together rather than in parallel. Each group continues to serve its own community, but through shared staffing, technical expertise, fundraising coordination and policy advocacy, the collaborative increases efficiency and competitiveness for funding. By combining smaller, scattered projects under one umbrella, our C.L.T.s are better positioned to secure county, state and federal resources that might otherwise be out of reach.

In the past two years, the collaborative has evolved into a direct response to displacement. In 2024, B.C.L.T. stabilized nearly 30 households from the Tacherra ranch through its innovative Bo-Linda Vista interim housing project. In 2025, CLAM, with support from partners, accelerated efforts to address the loss of housing for about 40 families on the Martinelli ranch and within the Point Reyes National Seashore. To date, CLAM has rehoused six displaced families—30 people—representing about 20 percent of those affected. With the 14-unit tiny home village at Sixth and B Streets expected to welcome residents this spring, that number will rise to roughly 20 households, or 40 percent of those displaced. CLAM is negotiating additional sites that could provide 20 more units.

CLAM continues advancing the 54-unit Coast Guard development. County supervisors will soon vote on conveying the property to CLAM and its partner Eden Housing, and a $20 million-plus federal funding application is due in April. If awarded, the project is anticipated to be completed by fall 2028. In Bolinas, B.C.L.T. is partnering with Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco on an eight-unit homeownership project at 31 Wharf Road. The project is fully funded and scheduled to begin outreach this year. For newer organizations like T.V.C.L.T., participation in the collaborative has been especially impactful, helping it move more quickly and effectively than it could alone.

The challenges we face are decades in the making and will not be solved overnight. While C.L.T. work has a long history here, a recent housing study made clear the need for greater coordination. Our growing portfolio represents a meaningful shift from separate efforts to coordinated action, from competition to cooperation, and from short-term fixes to a long-term strategy. By working together, we are not only responding to today’s crisis, but laying the groundwork for a future in which the people who work here can continue to live here securely, affordably and with dignity.

Annie O’Connor is co-director of B.C.L.T. 

Jarrod Russell is executive director of CLAM.