County Must Answer for Lack of Affordable Homes

While state law does not require that the county provideaffordable housing, the county general plan must outline sites whereaffordable housing units and homeless shelters can be built, anobligation that the county has not fulfilled, according to JudgeLaurence Sawyer. County officials argue that they have been processingnew locations for affordable housing since their former site wasincorporated, but the Housing Advocacy Group counters that they have hadyears to comply without any action. According to the Association of BayArea Governments (ABAG), http://www.abag.ca.gov , Sonoma County had aneed for 2,732 low- and very-low-income units from 1990 to 1995, butonly 244 units were ever built. Housing Advocacy Group attorney Grabillalso stated that there are currently several urban areas under countyjurisdiction that could accommodate the housing without compromisingfarmland or open space.