Marin County declares shelter crisis, clearing the way to provide more temporary housing

by Ruth Dusseault, Bay City News March 13, 2025August 15, 2025

FILE: Point Reyes Beach South at Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County on Nov. 8, 2023. Dozens of ranchers and their tenants within the national park's boundaries face eviction under a new agreement to preserve grazing land for the native tule elk. Marin County has declared a shelter crisis that will make it easier to create temporary housing throughout the county. (Ray Saint Germain/Bay City News)

Ranch workers in Point Reyes National Seashore, who are destined to lose their jobs and homes within a year following a new land management plan by the National Park Service, received some hope for relief from the Marin County Board of Supervisors this week.

In a unanimous vote, the county Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to pass a shelter crisis declaration, a three-year ordinance that takes place immediately. It allows the county to bypass certain housing codes and create temporary dwellings on private and unincorporated land.

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Ruth Dusseault, Bay City News

Ruth Dusseault is an investigative reporter and multimedia journalist focused on environment and energy. Her position is supported by the California local news fellowship, a statewide initiative spearheaded by UC Berkeley aimed at supporting local news platforms. While a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism (c’23), Ruth developed stories about the social and environmental circumstances of contaminated watersheds around the Great Lakes, Mississippi River and Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Her thesis explored rights of nature laws in small rural communities. She is a former assistant professor and artist in residence at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, and uses photography, film and digital storytelling to report on the engineered systems that undergird modern life.

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