Editorial: Collaboration key for Marin affordable housing plans

Affordable housing in Marin – unfortunately more of a goal than a reality – is getting a boost from state and federal tax breaks.

The breaks are providing the financing for three housing opportunities needed to make a lasting difference for many Marin families who otherwise would be priced out of our county.

Those projects include Eden Housing’s plans to build a 115-unit affordable apartment complex near San Quentin prison, the county-approved plans to build 125 affordable apartments at Marinwood Plaza, a mostly shuttered shopping center, and securing affordable rents for the 99-unit Meridian apartments in San Rafael’s Canal neighborhood.

For tenants of the Meridian and their landlord, the tax breaks mark the end of a prolonged battle over rising rents, evictions and strained negotiations that included the city passing an urgency ordinance protecting tenants from being evicted due to renovations and requiring landlords to provide assistance for temporary relocation.

The positive resolution of this quandary provides the San Francisco owner with tax breaks, offered by the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority, in exchange for long-term affordable rents for tenants. The landlord’s savings from the tax exemption will pay for completing the $3.8 million worth of repairs and improvements to the Canal Street complex.

Preservation of affordable housing is just as important as building more.

Worries that other federal Opportunity Zone tax enticements were attracting speculation in Canal properties and investments to renovate them would lead to higher rents beyond the means of many tenants prompted the city’s actions.

The state’s tax-break program helps prevent the Bay Area’s supply of affordable housing from being eroded by market-driven rent increases.

State financing is also going to help Eden Housing follow through with its plans to build its part of the Oak Hill apartment complex. The state has given the affordable housing developer permission to issue $30 million in tax-exempt bonds and awarded it $12.5 million in state and federal tax credits to help make the project a reality.

According to Eden Housing, the project is now fully funded and construction could begin in the spring.

Rounding out the Oak Hill development, plans to build 135 affordable apartments for county workers and public school teachers and employees has also received significant financial support from the state.

Both projects, however, have been stalled by financing shortfalls caused by rising construction costs.

The bonding and tax credits boost Eden Housing’s plan over that hurdle.

The county has had a longstanding interest in building affordable housing on the old Marinwood Plaza shopping center property.

Development plans were shelved due to the need to clean up contaminated soil left by a dry cleaner that was a longtime fixture of the small shopping center that was once lined with businesses.

The grocery store remains, but plans to build housing have been stuck on the drawing boards for more than a decade.

State-approved bonds and federal tax credits have lifted those plans to where it is fully funded and can move forward.

The three projects are among the largest Marin plans close to construction.

The state and federal financing helps not only boost two longstanding development opportunities, but also helps protect housing for tenants of a large Canal apartment complex from being financially forced to move.

Marin faces ambitious housing construction quotas mandated by the state. In these cases, county, state and federal financing initiatives are not only helping build affordable housing, but also preserving

These are good examples of collaborative progress to create difference-making opportunities.