The California Coastal Commission has rejected a challenge against temporary housing for about 60 people living on a Bolinas ranch.

Growing Together: Advancing Housing Solutions for Workers in West Marin is the culmination of in-depth interviews, surveys, community listening sessions, and other statistical research conducted over a 12-month period, beginning in 2023.  The study sheds light on the web of issues facing West Marin's workforce housing landscape.

Since last October, roughly 60 people, including 18 children, have lived in the RV park on the Tacherra Ranch, a working family farm on Mesa Road that has provided meat, vegetables and eggs to the Bolinas community for over 100 years. Mostly laborers — on ranches, restaurants, construction sites, landscaping crews — they make up just 4% of the town’s population, but their children account for nearly 20% of the tiny K-8 Bolinas-Stinson Union School District.

County managers are recommending that supervisors spend $500K of the $21M budget for new, one-time projects to address substandard rural housing.

The Bolinas Community Land Trust has reached a deal to purchase the Tacherra ranch, where it plans to replace 23 condemned structures with new farmworker housing. The trust and the receiver in charge of the property expect to sign a purchase-and-sale agreement within days.

We are delighted to share that the emergency RV campground has a new name. Residents have named their home Bo-Linda Vista, “Linda” meaning beautiful. We know there is a lot of interest in the campground, and residents would like to ask for neighbors and strangers to respect their privacy as they continue to settle in. Families recently gathered to create signs to help clarify the private property boundaries. 

"In a departure from the ‘Housing First’ model, steps are underway to provide emergency housing for farmworkers in Bolinas. An imaginative approach and speedy action on the part of the nonprofit Bolinas Community Land Trust resulted in a first-rate temporary solution that is already up and running."

The Bolinas Community Land Trust’s creation of emergency housing on a large parcel off Mesa Road is an example of a community taking care of its own.

"Marin County supervisors allocated $622,000 on Tuesday to help provide emergency housing for approximately 60 people who have been living in substandard conditions for years in Bolinas."

"After work on Tuesday, a dozen Bolinas families received keys to their new homes in a temporary R.V. park just yards from their old ramshackle ranch housing. Children raced around the freshly graded grounds while their parents signed leases and toured trailers with staff from the Bolinas Community Land Trust, which plans to replace the condemned housing with permanent, affordable homes." (Ben Stocking / Point Reyes Light)

"The Bolinas Community Land Trust is attempting to raise more than $2.59 million to provide emergency housing using recreational vehicles for people who have been living in substandard conditions for years in western Marin.

The trust plans to install 27 recreational vehicles with utility connections and a new mound septic system on a 20-acre parcel at 130 Mesa Road. Water for the project would be supplied despite Bolinas’ moratorium on new water connections by reallocating water from other land trust properties."

"About 60 people living in condemned housing on a Bolinas ranch could begin moving into an emergency R.V. park next door as early as next week. The project’s organizers are forging ahead even though they are still scrambling to secure all the permits and money they will need to keep the project running after it opens."