Richardson Bay agency gets more time to house boaters

The Richardson Bay Regional Agency has secured an additional year to relocate a group of boat residents from the anchorage.

The extension gives the agency until October 2025 to move people living on the bay who are eligible for the agency’s housing program. The request was approved by the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission on July 11, according to Brad Gross, the executive director of the agency.

“They understand the need for more time to get the rest of those boaters housed,” Gross said.

Gross said the extension is partly because the agency only has one caseworker and is unable to process more than one or two people a month in the housing program.

Also, the extension applies only to a specific group of people on about 25 vessels who were not included in the last extension request. That was for 15 vessels that arrived after 2019.

“The extension is to be able to get them all processed through the housing program,” Gross said.

Many people have lived on their boats on the anchorage for decades, even though a law prohibits boats from anchoring there beyond 72 hours. In 2016, there were 240 such boaters, known as “anchor-outs.” Now, there are about 25 boats on the bay, according to an agency report.

In 2021, the agency reached a settlement with the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, agreeing that illegally anchored vessels would be removed by October 2026. The agreement came after threats of enforcement by the commission. The agency’s temporary housing program, made possible with a $3 million state grant, will help the agency meet that deadline.

The extension request was part of a first-year review of the temporary housing program given at the agency’s board meeting on July 11. The agency’s goal is to get 30 people off the bay and into housing by the end of the program’s three-year span.

“We’re like halfway there and our really big stumbling block is people’s willingness to participate,” Gross said.

According to the review, the agency had issued 13 housing vouchers so far, with 14 clients temporarily housed in Larkspur, Novato, San Rafael, Sausalito and Tiburon. Three people have transitioned into the Section 8 Federal Housing Choice Voucher initiative. The federal program is a permanent source of subsidized housing support for people, while the RBRA voucher is only for one year.

In total, the agency has made contact with 35 people on the anchorage and served 28. There have been 13 vessels removed from the bay, with one in the process of being removed. The agency offers a buy-back program that gives vessel owners $150 per linear foot if they surrender it.

As of last month, there were 25 to 29 people living on 25 vessels who were eligible to apply for the temporary housing program. Of those, seven people on six vessels were already in the enrollment or rental process.

Jim Lynch, chair of the agency’s board, said the goals of the housing program “are being met.”

“The program is securing housing for individuals, enabling RBRA to remove vessels off the anchorage, and making Richardson Bay more safe and secure for everyone to enjoy,” Lynch said. “As with any important initiative, there remains room for improvement, and this report offers a useful set of recommendations for the RBRA as we move forward.”

Along with the housing program updates, Gross also said that 4.5 acres of eelgrass have been planted in the bay. In 2023, the agency contracted with an environmental consultant to restore 15 acres of the essential fish habitat, which experts say has been damaged by the long-term anchorage.

An eelgrass protection zone is set to go into effect by Oct. 15, but 26 vessels remain in the proposed zone, according to Jim Malcolm, the harbormaster.

Marin County Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters asked what the plan is to move the 26 vessels from the eelgrass area and into the established anchorage zone within the next few months.

Malcolm said the agency has issued consistent notices at one year, nine months, six months and three months from the deadlines, and will give a two- and one-month notices as well.

“The hope is that people will move themselves,” Malcolm said. “I don’t plan on going out and hooking onto any vessels and putting them into the anchorage. Really, the way the code is set up is that anyone who remains after that October deadline is subject to further citation.”