Affordable Housing & Homelessness
Every person deserves to live in a safe and secure home. However, the high cost of housing and limited supply of affordable homes in Marin forces many of our neighbors into unjust housing situations.
What's at stake
1,100 of our neighbors are currently without a home. Nearly half of our county's households spend more than 30% of their income on housing. 62% of Marin county workers live outside the county and commute to work.
Marin's high cost of housing harms a wide range of people, and we simply cannot be a vibrant and diverse community unless housing costs decline, and more housing is built. Period.
Our vision
To address housing issues effectively will require billions of dollars. So we can't do this alone. We will collaborate with community leaders and experts to identify critical intervention points in the continuum from homelessness to homeownership. We will seek opportunities to leverage our funding to prevent and resolve homelessness, protect tenants, preserve affordability, and produce more housing.
The Year in Review
June 30, 2024 to July 1, 2025 represented the first full year of our Homelessness & Affordable Housing strategy in action. While MCF has worked on both issues for decades, the new strategy shifted our focus from primarily making capital grants and loans for housing projects, and from executing safety net grants for homelessness.
We have a new, intentional objective to prevent homelessness. And a three-pronged approach to protect, preserve and produce affordable housing.
The tools we are using expand beyond grantmaking (although grantmaking remains a vital tool). We are leveraging the power of recoverable grants, loans, research, convening, trainings, and we’re asking others to join us in our efforts. Much of the work is foundational – laying the groundwork for impacts that will take years to deliver results.
Over the course of the year we executed over $9 million in grants and maintain $18 million in active loans. Let’s break that down:
Homelessness
Close to 20% of the grants were directed towards homelessness prevention in priority communities throughout the county. This included grants to Ritter Center, North Marin Community Services, Legal Aid of Marin and the funding of a two-year homelessness prevention pilot with All Home and the County of Marin. This partnership aims to bring to Marin an evidence-backed targeted homelessness prevention program which uses the latest research to target direct financial assistance to households at greatest risk of homelessness. MCF, the County, and All Home are all providing funding, and the County and All Home are providing in kind support as well.
Affordable Housing
The remaining 80% of grants were directed towards supporting affordable housing efforts, covering everything from coalition building to the creation of permanent supportive housing. 16 loans that are currently active have contributed towards 310 permanently affordable housing units for lower-income community members including 45 homes designated for seniors, 16 for adults with disabilities, and 10 for survivors of domestic violence.
In both cases, we are seeking leverage like never before – opportunities for our support to attract other funding. For example, The Oak Hill project is the largest and most significant affordable housing project to be built in Marin in generations. It will provide 250 housing units, including 115 for lower-income families and 135 for educators and county employees. The project only works because the State of California made surplus land available for housing, the County of Marin and Marin County Office of Education are providing financing, and various state and federal programs are contributing. A low-interest loan from MCF and some of its donors is providing a catalytic lift to the project.
In addition, MCF donors contributed more than $4 million to support urgent housing solutions in West Marin stemming from the closure of ranches in the Pt Reyes National Seashore.
As we embark on year two, we will continue to provide support that both responds to immediate, urgent needs (such as gap financing for housing preservation or direct assistance), as well as efforts that plant seeds for the future. We want to support efforts to grow public investment in housing, encourage pro-housing narratives, increase nonprofit capacity, and more. Similarly, we’re pursuing avenues to develop new systems to accelerate the end of homelessness in Marin County by stopping it before it starts.
If you’re interested in joining us in these efforts, please let us know, as there are many ways to participate. Connect with Cassandra Benjamin at cbenjamin@marincfconsultant.org
Housing and homelessness resources
Interested in learning more? Selected reports and research papers are below.
