West Marin Housing Collaborative

West Marin faces a unique set of housing challenges. Remote location, coastal regulations, environmental constraints, high land costs, and the complexities of septic development all combine to make affordable housing development exceptionally difficult in our rural communities.

Community land trusts, or CLTs, have proven to be an innovative and effective solution to these challenges. A CLT is a nonprofit organization that holds land in trust for the community and sells or leases the homes on the land to ensure long-term affordability.

Over the past 25 years, West Marin's CLTs have collectively created 100 units of permanently affordable housing across the region. But to truly meet the scale of need in our communities, we need to work together.

In 2022, with funding support from the West Marin Fund and Marin Community Foundation, four West Marin community land trusts came together to form the West Marin Housing Collaborative (WMHC). Through a structured six-month process, participating organizations established a framework for collaboration, identified priority work areas, and created agreements for ongoing partnership.

The West Marin Housing Collaborative includes:

  • Community Land Trust Association of West Marin (CLAM) - serving the Point Reyes Station area; Jarrod Russell, Executive Director

  • Bolinas Community Land Trust (BCLT) - serving Bolinas, Annie O’Connor, Executive Director

  • Two Valleys Community Land Trust - serving the San Geronimo Valley; Hal Russek, Executive Director

  • Stinson Beach Affordable Housing Committee - serving Stinson Beach; Harriet Moss, Committee Lead

Purpose of the Collaborative

The primary goal of the WMHC is to streamline the work of West Marin's affordable housing organizations in order to conserve, preserve, and produce affordable housing across our unincorporated communities as quickly and economically as possible. By removing unnecessary competition, reducing redundancies, and creating efficiencies, we can build shared resources, develop collaborative programs, and launch key policy initiatives that benefit the entire region.

How We Work

The Collaborative operates as a program under CLAM’s leadership. Each member organization maintains its autonomy, continuing to develop projects, maintain donor relationships, and serve its own community while working to develop a coordinated regional housing strategy.

The Collaborative strengthens our region-wide efforts by:

Sharing Resources

  • Creating a shared infrastructure to streamline operations and maximize collective impact

  • Creating tools and templates to build the capacity of our member organizations

  • Developing a shared database of lenders and financing sources

  • Sharing staffing and technical expertise in affordable housing, property development, communications, and government relations

Developing Collaborative Programs

  • Creating region-wide solutions to shared housing challenges

  • Coordinating homeownership workshops and training opportunities

  • Working together on major fundraising initiatives to leverage resources and avoid competition for the same funding sources.

Advancing Policy Changes

  • Working with Marin County to streamline approvals for affordable housing projects

  • Advocating collectively for state and local policy improvements

More recently, the Collaborative has been the locus of shared effort to coordinate housing solutions for the nearly 70 households currently facing displacement from local ranches, with member CLTs working together on projects spanning communities across West Marin.