Public Comment in support of Oak Hill at 12/9 Board of Supervisors meeting

On December 9, 2025 Executive Director Jenny Silva and Housing Specialist Carmela Davis spoke in support of the Oak Hill project.

At this Board of Supervisors meeting, the agenda item was to consider approving the Oak Hill guarantor plans and approving additional requested funds. We advocated for the approval of both. At the end of the meeting, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in approval.

Present at the meeting, also in support, were representatives for Senator Mike McGuire, Assemblymember Damon Connolly, and members of Marin Organizing Committee (MOC), Bolinas Community Land Trust (BCLT), Stinson Beach Affordable Housing Committee, Association of Public Employees, Derek Knell on behalf of NUSD, Tim Gormon with EDEN Housing, John A. Carroll — the Superintendent of Marin County Office of Education (MCOE), and other Marin residents.

You can read Carmela Davis’s public comment below:

Hello President Sackett and Supervisors, I am Carmela Davis, the housing specialist with Call Marin Home, formerly MEHC. We strongly support Oak Hill and I urge you to approve the financing structure and additional requested funds before you today.

Over the past several months, informed by the schools and County due diligence process, the project team has added multiple layers of risk mitigation in direct response to public concerns—including proportional guarantees, a stabilization reserve, more conservative vacancy assumptions, and ongoing budget oversight.

• The greatest risk to our community is doing nothing: Marin is already losing valued teachers, healthcare workers, and first responders to neighboring counties simply because they can’t afford to live here, and over 60% of County employees now commute from outside Marin.

• Our public schools and County departments are competing for talent with communities that have already invested in workforce housing; which means we are losing experienced staff, which forces higher recruitment costs, disrupts continuity of service, and ultimately impacts students, families, and residents.

• Other Bay Area counties—like Santa Clara, San Mateo, and San Francisco—have been ahead of the curve on workforce housing, and Oak Hill reflects lessons learned from those projects.

• Affordable and workforce housing at below-market rents requires public investment; the County’s “umbrella” financing structure enables the schools to receive dedicated much needed affordable teacher housing without providing up front funding.

• Having community-based teachers will not only improve the educational experience for our children, but providing workforce housing will reduce turnover which has the positive economic benefit of lowering recruitment and retainage costs for the participating districts – this meaningful impact is not mentioned by project opponents.

As someone who attended K-12 at public schools in Marin, I can say that it would be a benefit to have your teachers also living in your town. I urge you to support. Thank you for your time.