Page 20 - Sonoma County Gazette September 2019

Creating Immediate & Affordable Housing through Home Sharing
By Joy Lovinger
There’s a lot of publicity
about the lack of affordable
housing both nationwide
and locally and Sonoma
County is doing something
about it. SHARE (Shared
Housing and Resource
Exchange) Sonoma County
offers a timely alternative throughout Sonoma County and the Sonoma Valley.
September 21 – 28, 2019 is Creek Week
in the Russian River Watershed!
Join in with this spirit of environmental conservation and community enrichment by getting educated, invested & involved.
A “Provider” has a room or rooms in his/her home and might need a bit of extra income or some sort of service exchange in order to remain home safely to age-in-place. The “Provider” is carefully and thoughtfully matched with
a “Seeker,” someone in need of housing, who is screened and thoroughly background checked with proven financial sustainability should rent be exchanged.
Creek Week is an opportunity for the community to collectively take on the task of cleaning the creeks of litter and debris, but did you know Conservation Corps North Bay is taking on the task year-round? This unique nonprofit organization takes an amazingly well-rounded approach to protecting our community by creating opportunities for the “corpsmembers” to earn their high school diploma, along with providing a job and developing the real-life skills and discipline these individuals need to thrive.
Executive Director Amy Appleton started this non-profit program with her own money, now in its 6th year, and it’s become so successful that SHARE has multiple ongoing grants that help keep it running. SHARE has completed over 400 matches with an attrition rate of only 6%. The demand for affordable housing is great and continues to
Under the supervision of a highly qualified and capable management team, Conservation Corps North Bay (CCNB) trains its corpsmembers to offer a wide range of services which profit and enrich the community. Their Natural Resources division provides assistance with a variety of tasks including trail construction and maintenance, flood prevention, fire fuel reduction and habitat restoration; among many other services.
They also operate a Zero Waste program which benefits the community by providing:
Maris, Maudee & Winston
• Outreach and community
education regarding recycling services and receptacles;
• Storm drain labeling
throughout Northern
California to help
prevent illegal dumping
of motor oil and other harmful pollutants into our waterways;
• Used tire and bulky item collecting, recycling, and disposing; and • E-waste & mattress
As of mid-July, CCNB has partnered with the Mattress Recycling Council to accept used mattresses at their Cotati location every Monday
to Thursday between the hours of 7:30am to 3:30pm free of charge. Not only do they collect e-waste free
grow at an accelerated rate.
A focus for SHARE is to continue to find housing for the wildfire survivors,
having placed 2 this month alone.
Some of SHARE’s Seekers are those who cannot afford to rent an apartment
due to the increased rental rates and have great success helping to prevent homelessness and keep folks from experiencing long-term homelessness.
Services that are exchanged might include companionship, being in the home at nighttime, driving, house cleaning, meal preparation, gardening, pet care and personal care.
Rents exchanged average between $650 upwards to $900 per month for renting a room. SHARE also helps facilitate use of county or city of Santa Rosa HUD vouchers which values are very attractive for someone in need of additional income.
collection events!
The reason for our low attrition rate
is very simple. SHARE facilitates the
match, completing paperwork, clearly and
carefully defining and documenting the
arrangement. In addition, SHARE provides ongoing support to ensure the match is successful.
Communication with any family member and/or friend support is key as is collaboration with any other agency that is involved with each participant.
SHARE is keenly aware of participants’ vulnerabilities, that we are introducing a literal stranger into someone’s home. We do our very best to help each participant to step through our process in order to create a successful and safe home share.
SHARE provides a valuable housing solution for Sonoma County. If you’d
like more information or wish to support SHARE with a tax-deductible donation, please contact SHARE at 707/766-8800, online at sharesonomacounty. org or via email at info@sharesonomacounty.org.
20 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 9/19
of charge, they even go
to your location and haul it off for you! Follow this link for more information on the CCNB Zero Waste program and to view their events page: www. ccnorthbay.org/zero-waste.
Bob and A.J.
You can contribute to the health of the Russian River ecosystem by participating in creek and river cleanup events throughout the watershed. To view Creek Week events in your area, visit www.rrwatershed.org’s Blog.
This article was authored by Jon Caldwell, City of Cotati, Department of Public Works, on behalf of RRWA. RRWA (www.rrwatershed.org) is an association of local public agencies in the Russian River Watershed that have come together to coordinate regional programs for clean water, habitat restoration, and watershed enhancement.