Affordable Housing for Locals
Affordable housing for local residents
The Union · 8 Oct 2025 · OTHER VOICES Matthew Osypowski
As a lifelong Nevada Country resident, a financial advisor and a father, I’ve grown increasingly tired of watching friends get priced out of Nevada County. I am writing in support of the Alternative/rv Housing Ordinance under consideration by the board of supervisors.
If passed, this ordinance would allow for one inhabited RV on properties three acres or larger. That RV would have to be connected to sewer and power, subject to fees and initial and recurring inspection. The guardrails are strong. None of this is cheap for a homeowner, none of it is easy, none of it scales. This isn’t an invitation for sprawling encampments, lawlessness, drug dens or post-apocalyptic wastelands.
I make this point because those arguing against the ordinance most loudly have been approaching this as an unsatisfactory housing solution for people who are currently unhoused, unemployed, and dependent on government services for survival.
The reality is that this ordinance does nothing for that population. The landowners who will spend many thousands of dollars on the infrastructure necessary to get an RV pad built and permitted will do so for one of two basic reasons:
1. They have someone very close to them who needs a place to stay
2. They plan on renting it out and making a profit
I know many people who are involved in some unpermitted version of —
#1. The elderly father who has pancreatic cancer and can’t afford professional nursing care.
#2. The daughter in her 20s who was laid off unexpectedly from her job in San Francisco and is staying on her parents’ land while she resets. Just to name two.
As for the second group, my educated guess is that these permitted, on-grid RV rentals (again, one per property) will probably rent for $700$1100. That’s less than the traditional rental market, which generally starts at around $1500 these days, but it’s not nothing.
Who can pay that kind of money but not more? Well, minimum wage workers in retail, landscaping or food and beverage. Working 40 hours a week at $16.50/ hr, they’re grossing around $2600 per month, which makes it challenging but not impossible. Also retirees, artists and entrepreneurs with similar income.
I want to live in a community where these people can afford to stay. I want to live in a community where family and friends are allowed to help each other. I want all of these people who are just barely paying the bills to stabilize, settle into a home, and be okay, because that’s a decent and moral and human thing to want, and because the alternative for many will be genuine homelessness, long-term unemployment, dependence on government assistance, and all the related problems of crime, drug use, unpermitted fires, untended spaces and true, desperate poverty — all the things that the opponents of this resolution are so desperate to prevent. It’s easy to say that the housing crisis is real but that this isn’t the right solution. Sure, this plan doesn’t solve everything. But it’s a measure that was crafted with care, conscience, and clear-headed practicality, and it will absolutely allow some good local people to live better, more productive lives in our community at very little cost to the rest of us. I think that’s a good enough reason to say yes.
Based in Nevada City, Matthew Osypowski, CFP®, is a member of the No Place To Go Project Media Service team. The No Place To Go Project is a 501©(3) nonprofit with the mission of arts-based social justice advocacy for homeless and at-risk citizens. Donations are tax-deductible and greatly appreciated. For more information, please visit www.noplacetogoproject.org
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