Accelerating Housing Construction – Employers Housing Council

Launched in April 2018, the Economic Development Board’s Strategic Sonoma plan focused the input from all sectors in Sonoma County to provide a 5-year plan for economic growth after the Sonoma Complex Fires. A central recommendation in the plan is the establishment of an Employer Housing Council.

In October 2018, the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber and the North Coast Builders Exchange formed a permanent Sonoma County Employer Housing Council (EHC) to accelerate the building of market rate, workforce and affordable housing. Since that time, the EHC has grown to include 15 major Sonoma County employers, including St. Joseph Health, Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health, Medtronic, Keysight Technologies and Redwood Credit Union as well as representation from Santa Rosa Junior College, Sonoma State University and Santa Rosa City Schools.

The EHC will convene these major employers to advance accountability in the progress toward the County’s housing goals (30,000 housing units by 2025), provide a forum for employers to share information, assist jurisdictions in removing barriers to development, and assist housing projects to financially get off the ground.

The Employer Housing Council adds value to existing efforts as it is the only group established to track and provide accountability to a community-wide housing goal and bring multi-sector employers together to help advance specific housing projects that will benefit those employer’s workforce needs.

While the EHC will support rebuild efforts of other existing groups, it will focus on the larger, and longer term, housing development needed to address the pre-disaster housing crisis.