Stop All Government Evictions

Permit Sonoma spends millions of dollars each year on code enforcement, much of it on inspections that result in the eviction of well over 100 county residents annually from their safe, affordable trailers, tiny homes, yurts and modest dwellings.

Thousands of UnPermitted Sonoma County live with constant fear that one call to Permit Sonoma from an anonymous neighbor will result in a dreaded 30-day eviction order which happens almost every time county code enforcement inspects a trailer, yurt, tent or tiny home, regardless of how safe they are.

This is often because antiquated housing code law requires the usage of septic systems rather than composting toilets and trailer bathrooms, even though these same bathrooms for environmental, affordability and water conservation reasons, are legal in many other states, in campgrounds, and when mobile homes are parked on public streets. 

Tyra Harrington, Code Enforcement Manager for Permit Sonoma, claims that her agency’s 176 orders resulting in the eviction of residents of many low-cost dwellings during the last 12 months were issued to “protect the health and safety” of the people living in them.

Permit Sonoma takes the uncompromising position that any unpermitted dwelling is a danger to its residents, despite overwhelming evidence that most are perfectly safe, especially considering the alternatives. As a result, the agency effectively forces housing providers  to remove or destroy all unpermitted dwellings within 30 days or face fines of up to $100 per day. 

Incredibly, property owners are being forced to evict tenants during a declared housing emergency, something that would be illegal if they did it without being ordered to do so by their government.

Permit Sonoma’s hypocritical orders to evict residents from safe affordable homes for their own safety is the most egregious disconnect that exists today between the needs of the governed and the government that represents us.

Last year Sonoma County directed more than $100 million of tax dollars for housing-related assistance to help low-income renters and the homeless. 

This is the very same government whose brutal code enforcement orders have, during the past decade, forced its lowest-income renters to vacate more than 1,000 units of the most affordable housing in our county.

Sonoma County Government, which claims to place affordable housing at the top of its list of priorities, has become the region’s largest destroyer of affordable housing, as well as the entity that causes more homelessness than any landlord.

We, the undersigned, call for an end to this inhumane, destructive disconnect between the intention of the governed and the actions of our government. 

We urge Sonoma County Supervisors to pass a moratorium on Permit Sonoma enforcement actions when they result in the eviction of low-income renters, unless there is an immediate threat to their health and safety that is demonstrably greater than the health and safety risk of being homeless.

During the 1990’s, in the midst of the unconscionable war on Americans who used marijuana, local governments like the cities of San Francisco and Seattle passed ordinances instructing police to stand down and make marijuana their lowest enforcement priority. 

These moratoriums were effective, immediate legal solutions that managed to address the gross injustice of victimless marijuana arrests, without having to go through the years-long process of changing state law. 

We urge Sonoma County Supervisors to pass a similarly intended enforcement moratorium this year so that these senseless evictions end and thousands of our neighbors can finally feel secure in their homes this winter.

Everybody needs a home.

Stop all government evictions. Now!

To help, or contact us email: campaigns@progressivesource.com

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