Note:  What is shown below is a copy of the original letter, made for this website.  It is included here only so that the contents of the original letter can be searchable.  (The PDF received from the City is in the form of an image, and so is not a searchable document.)

What is below is not the letter sent by the letter-writer. It will contain typographical errors and other departures from the original.  The PDF displayed above is accurate.  The text below is not accurate.  It is printed here for indexing purposes, so that each word can be indexed and included in the search.

RE: Community Benefits of the Arcata Gateway Area Plan and Ownership
Opportunities
Dear Arcata Planning Commission,
Please consider adding at least a 10% requirement of owner-occupied units to the
Arcata Gateway Plan.
It is no secret that our County and State are experiencing a housing crisis. Coupled
with rising home and rental prices members of our community are being priced out of
house and home at a much higher rate. A recent article in the Time Standard stated:
“A county resident would need to make $21.38, or $44,480 annually, to afford a
$1,112 rental, according to 2022 Out of Reach report by the National Low Income
Housing Coalition. The report prices a two-bedroom rental at $1,112, but onebedrooms in Humboldt County range from $825 to over $2,000 with most priced over
$1,000. Two-bedroom rentals start around $1,200, with few options available at that
price.”
Beyond the national rise in sale prices post-pandemic, statistics indicate that Humboldt
County’s prices rose faster and higher than the national and state averages. In June of
2022 C.A.R. (California Association of Realtors®) reported the median home price in
Arcata was $510,000, with a median of nine days on the market, and only ten active
listings. To be clear to afford a $430,000 home a household would need to make at
least $85,000 annually, while the 2020 census report places the median household
income at $49,235.
We feel the Arcata Gateway Area Plan aligns with the goals of alleviating some strain
of the housing crisis in Arcata, but at some point, we must stop reacting and start

planning for more than just our current problems. Creating more supply with diversity in price range will help
alleviate rising home prices and provide a pathway to the best way to build generational wealth, through
homeownership.
In the 2019-2027 Arcata Housing Element Arcata states “It is the goal of the City of Arcata to provide housing
opportunities for people of all income levels through the development of a wide range of housing types and the
preservation of existing housing”.
It is already written into HE-1, the first policy mentioned in the 2019-2027 Arcata Housing Element to
encourage a wide range of housing types. California’s homeownership rate is 54.8% significantly higher than
the 36% in Arcata. While encouraging homeownership opportunities is a great start, without requirements the
City is left open to large corporations leaching money out of our County and into their own communities. By
requiring ownership opportunities in the Arcata Gateway Area Plan, developers will work with the community
to raise the ownership rates, create more diverse housing, and help increase the families net worth.
While home ownership is the best way to build generational wealth for families, it also helps by funding our
schools. 62.6% of property taxes in Humboldt County currently go towards funding our schools. An estimated
over $45 million dollars (2021-2022) by the Humboldt County Budget will come from property taxes alone.
When we require more ownership opportunities, we help increase the budgets for maintaining classrooms,
staffing our schools, and events students have missed out on for years. When Habitat for Humanity conducted a
study on the beneficial impacts of homeownership, they found higher rates of homeownership increased
graduation rates, good health in children, and net family worth while simultaneously decreasing children’s
behavioral problems, reliance on government, and even asthma.
We ask the Arcata Planning Commission to consider adding a minimum of 10% ownership opportunities in the
Arcata Gateway Area Plan to encourage financial growth in the community, produce more revenue for the
School Districts, and help solve our housing crisis. Thank you for addressing the concerns of our community.
If you have any questions or would like information on the data shown, please contact:
Kristen Crooks
Government Relations Liaison, Humboldt Association of Realtors

Sincerely,
Joshua Cook
Humboldt Association of Realtors®
2022 President