6/19 Coffee with CLAM Recap: Building Community Through Conversation

Thank you to everyone who supported our first Coffee with CLAM event last Thursday! We had an amazing turnout from the local community, and welcomed CLAM residents, community members, board members, and staff for a morning of meaningful conversation over coffee and bagels.

Hearing From the Team

The program opened with insights from Pamela Wright, who dedicated nearly ten years as our Board President and continues advocating for affordable housing in West Marin as an advisor to the CLAM team. Next, we heard from our Executive Director, Jarrod Russell, who shared updates on our progress, including funding developments, project timelines, and the current status of both the Coast Guard and Calf Lot projects. He also expressed his gratitude to the community for your continued patience, support, and trust in CLAM as we navigate such an urgent and complex housing crisis. Lynn Giacomini Stray, our incoming Board President, wrapped up the program by sharing her vision for advancing CLAM's mission, and highlighted her deep connection and rich history in Point Reyes.

Hearing From the Community

Following the speakers, we held a Q&A session where we heard from concerned neighbors of the Calf Lot, PRS residents seeking ways to collaborate on permanent housing, and community members wanting clarity on pre-development details, expectations, and hopes.

Stay Connected!

Below, you will find a link to the full program video (posted on our Instagram), photos from the event, and a summary of the questions asked during the Q&A. If you have more questions for CLAM, please contact us to schedule a one-on-one meeting with Jarrod or Lynn, and be sure to attend our next Coffee with CLAM event this August!

Please join our newsletter and follow us on Instagram and Facebook to stay connected and hear about upcoming events.

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Question and Answer Session

• What is the criteria for state funding for the Coast Guard?

  The application for the state funding is through the Joe Serna Jr Fund, which supports agricultural housing. It is a competitive scoring program, and CLAM was scored a number out of 100 based on a list of all the different criteria needed for the application. If we receive this funding, that would require the families living in the interim housing to derive a significant portion of their income from working on ranch lands or goods coming out of ranch lands. We scored highly and we are hopeful, but we won’t know for certain until August. The reason we had to go after this funding is that Section 8 vouchers have dried up, meaning that we had lost the equivalent of $8 million towards our total capital target. Thankfully, the Joe Serna Jr Fund is an opportunity to make up for that lost Section 8 funding, and move forward with the Coast Guard Project.

• How many people are you envisioning you might be able to accommodate at Calf Lot?

  We are in the very early stages of pre-development, but we have some general possibilities that we can share. We’ve heard concerns about the number of cars, parking, noise; these are all super valid and understandable. The structures that we're considering would be homes on wheels, not trailers or RVs. Homes on wheels are intended for long term use, and provide dignified housing in both the interim and permanent stages. We're trying to be as efficient with community resources as possible; we want to have more discussions, especially with the households that live right around that area, to understand, what are the things that we can take in and try to consider in our design and planning? With the County Board of Supervisors, the number was floated around 12 to 16 units; but it will take weeks if not months to provide a final answer. Some families may need more than one unit, so it is hard to say what our final numbers will be. We still have to have a positive vote from the Board of Supervisors to support the purchase and sale agreements, as well as the lease agreements for operating interim housing.

• Are there any limitations in terms of numbers of people that can be there or septic capacity?

  The emergency shelter declaration allows for streamlining of general permitting, but not septic; so we have to comply with basic and standard septic approaches. There is the ability under that, and/or the alternative building codes that were passed in March, to do a hold and haul if it's needed. That means there is a temporary holding tank for septic, as opposed to an integrated septic system. We want this to be a beautiful, pristine environment; our hope is that we can build a permanent septic system that would then serve some form of permanent housing. It takes a ton of creativity to do affordable housing in one of the most expensive regions of the country, especially with a timeline of nine months to effectively serve the families displaced from ranch closures. So yes, we have to comply with septic; that's going to be a major constraint on the number of bedrooms that can be at the site, and we don't even know what that number is yet for interim or permanent housing: that all has to be figured out in the months ahead.

• Since there are 3 more Board of Supervisors meetings, and we are still waiting for lots of approvals, what is the actual timeline for development?

  The July 15 board meeting is to authorize the purchase and sale agreement, where the County buys the lot from CLAM; and the lease agreement to generally operate interim housing on the site. This is where we’re going to start to talk about the potential actual number of units, because that's where CLAM is going to need some security from the County in terms of cost and how we are going to approach this together, and establish general intent. Ultimately, the County is going to determine what we can do there, but we are not going for density or multi-rises, we are trying to map to a set of community-led values. Ultimately we're going to be governed, as with most affordable housing, first by septic, and then from septic we will understand what our potential is for interim or permanent units.

• Which supervisor can people go to in order to ask questions?

  Eric Lucan is a great point of contact on the Board of Supervisors. When in doubt you can email all the Board of Supervisors and it gets on the record. Your voice is powerful and important, so hopefully we continue to stay engaged on this.

• Considering what we're dealing with now, how can we as a community take some control, support what you’re trying to do, and make some changes ourselves? For those of us who have transferable Section 8 vouchers, how can they be used to support permanent housing?

  We love the idea of transferring Section 8 vouchers. We also have the Real Community Rentals program that we did a while back with the West Marin Housing Collaborative, which is basically an effort for all the land trusts in West Marin to collaborate. We're actually looking at launching a Community Rentals 2.0 later this year; this will give opportunities for CLAM and other community land trusts to partner with homeowners on either adding a room/unit to their existing unit, or building a new unit or an ADU. These are opportunities for the community to have even more direct control in the provision of affordable housing.

• What is actually happening with the purchase of the calf lot; who owns it and who will manage it for the interim housing?

  The plan is for CLAM to do a back-to-back close with the County: we sell it to the County, they own it during the interim housing period, and then CLAM is the long-term owner and steward after the interim housing. As a land trust, we want to be able to ensure that our mission is carried forward on lands that we steward. In these agreements, there is a very clear pathway to CLAM being the long-term steward and owner of the calf lot, and also managing the permanent housing at the site.

• Once the emergency housing is no longer needed, the lot is zoned for 4 homes. Do you plan to build more than that?

  We are still in pre-development so we can’t commit to a number. What we will commit to, is that as we get more clarity on pre-development planning both for the interim and permanent housing, and as we get options ahead of us, we will keep the local community fully informed and involved in these discussions.

• What do you need from us, the community, most of all?

  Your engagement and your support! What we're trying to do is super complex, and we need your grace and compassion as we try to avoid the displacement of families. If you can donate to support these families who are fighting to remain in our community, please give to our Interim Housing Initiative Fund, or our general fund. As a non-profit, we always welcome unrestricted donations to help us do our work. We hope you come to future events like this, and please follow us on our newsletter and social medias to stay informed.