The Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) is the community process to decide where new residential development should be located. These decisions are the foundation of the Housing Element. RHNA is stewarded by the Humboldt County Association of Governments (HCAOG).

After failing to adequately collect public input on the RHNA process, HCAOG has reopened the public comment period for RHNA criteria - to figure out how to assess where housing is needed. Healthy Humboldt is watching closely to make sure that HCAOG follows the rules and chooses criteria that will accurately reflect our community's needs.

• Click here to read the most recent RHNA plan (PDF).
• Click here to read a report on RHNA happenings by Chris Rall of Green Wheels.

Why care about RHNA?

Development around Eureka threatens to envelope it in sprawl. Forster Gill, a large development in the Cutten Area, is merely the tip of the iceberg. Green Diamond is proposing large housing developments on the McKay Tract east of Eureka, and there are other proposed developments on Humboldt Hill and Elk River Road.

Meanwhile, there is increasing blight in our urban areas. Independent businesses are struggling. In Eureka, traffic is increasingly heavy and dangerous (#2 in injuries amongst 96 comparable cities in California) because people living outside Eureka drive in to work and shop.

There is a better way!

The housing allocation process targets housing towards each jurisdiction and is finally open to public participation! We could target more housing towards the cities, including Eureka, while reducing the pressure to develop sprawl in the County. Siting more housing in urban areas would:

• Support local businesses with more regular customers
• Provide development opportunities for blighted and abandoned properties
• Create safer neighborhoods with more "eyes on the street"
• Reduce families' transportation costs by helping more people live near their workplaces
• Improve community health by preserving family recreation opportunities, encouraging active living, and reducing air pollution

Help ensure RHNA really meets our housing needs!

Contact Jon for details on other ways you can help.

It's up to us to speak up for this vision and ensure that the General Plan Update provides the blueprint for a future that is healthy for us all. You can help by getting involved today!