The county has come up with a novel idea for addressing racial equity in Marin.
County supervisors are setting aside $5 million, roughly 10%, of the funding that’s expected from the federal American Rescue Plan Act for racial equity initiatives both county- and community-led.
The community-led programs will be chosen from proposals that are selected by a special county-appointed panel of Marin residents and then put up to a countywide vote – a way to increase public awareness and engagement in this important issue.
It certainly is a giant departure from the process of the county’s longstanding community grants where there is little public participation or awareness.
The important goal is to target money for improving the quality of lives of those living in low-income communities.
The equity grants proposal may be on a fast track toward a proposed countywide vote this summer, but some important details remain vague.
Exactly how people will learn about the proposals and vote are still being developed.
There are no plans to put the decision up to an election managed by the county Registrar of Voters and its pre-election voter-education publications. That would be too expensive.
Inviting residents to vote on the programs is a way to get them to think about this important issue and make choices that they decide will make a difference. So will the level of participation, both in its numbers and reach.
In recent studies, Marin has been listed as one of the most racially segregated counties in the state. In 2011, the county was called out by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development for imposing zoning restrictions that, even without intent, blocked minorities from moving to Marin. Such restrictions have essentially capped the local supply of housing and helped fuel increased property values and rents, continually raising the bar for the income and wealth needed to be able to live here.
Even before the nationwide shockwaves caused by the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the sweeping growth of the Black Lives Matter movement, county supervisors had vowed to lower bureaucratic and political roadblocks, mostly by increasing the supply of affordable housing and proactively broadening, beyond just local residents, the pathway to rental housing vouchers for local apartments.
It is unlikely that spending $2.5 million, regardless of how the decision is made on how it is dispersed, will do much to effectively lower long-standing barriers to racial equity in our county. But it could be a startup investment in a nonprofit program that can make a difference.
The county’s investment needs to include standards for assessing the performance of the grants and their potential for doing more.
Such change is going to take time and consistent community commitment, across many facets of our county.
One-time grants are not going to do it. Neither is just throwing money at a long-entrenched challenge.
The county’s leadership, to its credit, is trying to be mindful of the challenge, instead of shrugging its shoulders about it.
In the words of Supervisor Katie Rice, who was raised in Marin, the county is “trying to apply an equity lens to everything this county does.”
Inviting residents to vote on the programs is a way to get them to think about this important issue and make choices that they decide will make a difference. So will the level of participation, both in its numbers and reach.
"exciting" - Google News
January 17, 2022 at 01:30AM
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Editorial: Equity grants an exciting plan for Marin-targeted funding - Marin Independent Journal
"exciting" - Google News
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