Developers wanted: Marin County offers $5 million to build affordable housing

Single-application processing is available for developers to apply for funding for affordable home projects in Marin County and to preserve existing affordable units, county officials said.

Tapping several local, state and federal funding sources, the funding available amounts to about $5 million.

Meanwhile, three Marin County governments — Novato, Fairfax and Belvedere — were among 11 Bay Area local governments recently sued by advocacy groups for failing to meet a Jan. 31 deadline to submit their future homebuilding proposals to state regulators. Those advocates indicated they planned to look at other jurisdictions which have failed to meet the deadline

As for the $5 million, the available funding includes roughly $2.3 million in County Affordable Housing Funds (including a one-for-one match from the State Permanent Local Housing Allocation), $2.4 million in new federal funds from the American Rescue Plan, and $600,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant funds specific to housing projects.

The funds can be used for acquisition, rehabilitation, and new construction projects, although eligibility differs among the funding sources.

To address questions from potential applicants, county staff will host a virtual workshop at 1 p.m. March 1. Registration is open on the county’s affordable housing web page. Around June, funding recommendations are set to be presented to the board of supervisors for final approval, the county said.

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