Using a new technique, this year's census of the homeless in Sonoma County found far more of them than prior surveys. But improved methodology is being cited as the reason for the higher count, rather than a surge in the homeless population.

 

In the 2007 Homeless Census, explains Jenny Helbraun Abramson, the process depended on inviting homeless people into community centers to be counted. This time, the outreach was more direct and more comprehensive.

Read the full report here: 

 Or go here for a history of the homeless counts in Sonoma County.

Residential foreclosures can pose an opportunity for local government and agencies to increase the amount of affordable housing in their communities.

The federal government's one-size-fits-all approach to the mortgage meltdown will not work everywhere in the country, says Erik Sten (right), a former City Commissioner in Portland, Oregon. He believes a more diversified strategy will be required.

 Erik Sten was in Santa Rosa to speak at the Leadership Breakfast for the Sonoma County Housing Coalition, the kick-off event for their Affordable Housing Week . The Coalition has a full schedule of events planned throughSaturday, May 16.

Erik Sten's new enterprise is Further Development LLC, a start-up that is now gathering capital for a demonstration project to intercede and help overextended homeowners avoid foreclosure.

 

 

Tight credit is creating an additional challenge in the creation of affordable housing in Sonoma County.

John Lowry (right), Executive Director of Burbank Housing Development,  says the federal stimulus package may hold some help for his agency, but it will apply almost exclusively to rental projects.

 

 

The timeline for completing Burbank Housing's current projects, including Sequoia Village (seen nearing the end of construction  at left), is being directly affected by the present credit limits, which Lowry says will affect future developments even more.

You can find more information about co-housing in Northern California here.

The current economic downturn may take years to level out, predicts a local analyst, but in the short term, over-extended homeowners have some new options to protect their properties.

 

 

Sebastopol journalist  Steve  Pizzo was a co-author of this critically acclaimed expose of the savings and loan scandals of the early 1990s. Today's economic woes are sometimes described as a meltdown, a metaphor that he says is disturbingly accurate.