Desegregate Mill Valley?
Newsletter Post, September 2022
by Tammy Edmonson
Can Mill Valley overcome its legacy of racial segregation? The State Legislature sees promise in the Housing Elements which cities and counties must adopt every eight years to address anticipated local housing needs.
SB 686—the 2018 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Act—requires California cities to take “meaningful actions … [to] overcome patterns of segregation and foster inclusive communities free from barriers that restrict access to opportunity based on protected characteristics [such as race].” This duty applies to all of a city’s “activities and programs relating to housing and community development,” and specifically to local Housing Elements.
This year, Mill Valley is updating its Housing Element and must, for the first time, measure and remediate segregation as one of its central objectives. Although Mill Valley employed a consultant to conduct the fair housing assessment mandated by SB 686, MVFREE found serious deficiencies in that assessment that prevented the City from appropriately acknowledging and addressing racial segregation in its July Draft Housing Element. Most notably, by focusing on racial demographics within the City and other predominantly White areas of the County, the consultant obscured and minimized the existence of racial segregation in Mill Valley.
In MVFREE’s Memorandum and Proposed Revisions to the Draft Housing Element, we pointed out that the consultant neglected the required comparison of Mill Valley demographics to those of the Bay Area region. That comparison reveals that Mill Valley is among the Bay Area’s top ten most segregated cities. UC Berkeley Othering & Belonging Institute, The Most Segregated (and Integrated) Cities in the SF Bay Area (Nov. 18, 2020). Under AB 686, this finding obligates the City to identify the factors that contribute to its racial segregation and to develop strategies and actions in all Housing Element programs that are designed to overcome patterns of segregation.
MVFREE has recommended revisions throughout the Draft Housing Element to properly measure, acknowledge and address the City’s racial segregation. In addition, we have proposed a new Housing Element goal focused on overcoming racial segregation: “Promote a racially diverse, equitable and inclusive community.” Under our proposal, Mill Valley would commit to provide information and assistance to enable communities of color outside the City limits to take advantage of available Mill Valley housing opportunities; the City would prioritize communities of color disadvantaged by segregation in its allocation of such things as affordable housing, co-housing, ADUs, JDUs, live-work housing, assisted living, micro apartments, duplexes, mixed-income housing projects, housing vouchers, loans and other forms of financial or other housing assistance.
At the August 1 City Council meeting, MVFREE was pleased to hear Mill Valley Councilmembers and planning staff express general support for MVFREE’s proposed revisions. The City’s revised Draft Housing Element should be available on the City’s Housing Element Page by the publication data of this Newsletter. We look forward to seeing the new draft and will continue working with the City to develop and implement meaningful, affirmative actions to overcome racial segregation and inequity in our community.
Can Mill Valley overcome its legacy of segregation? It will take a lot more than words in a Housing Element to turn the tide and heal the wounds from decades of racial discrimination and exclusion. But if, as we expect, the City formally acknowledges and commits in its Housing Element to overcome racial segregation, this will be an historic first step toward an overdue reckoning.