photo credit: County of Sonoma 
Rebecca Hermosillo - District One. 

District One Supervisor Rebecca Hermosillo was elected in January as board chair for 2026. She sat down with KRCB News to discuss the need for innovative planning in light of federal budget cuts, particularly around affordable housing, nonprofit support and keeping vulnerable residents connected to services.

KRCB NEWS: Renters in Sonoma County need to earn about $40 an hour, more than double Santa Rosa's minimum wage, to afford average rent. Beyond hoping state funding keeps flowing, what specific county action is the board taking to make housing reachable for lower‑income residents?

HERMOSILLO: We know how much housing is needed, but we also know that to make affordable housing projects pencil, it's really like puzzle pieces coming together to find the funding to make it work. We should probably be looking at deed restricted—

KRCB NEWS: And can you define what that means?

HERMOSILLO: Yeah. The developers are counting on being able to make money after 30 years, after 40 years on fair market rents. But if we do the deed restriction, then they will be forever affordable housing. And so trying to make those development projects pencil is gonna be the challenging part to navigate.

What I saw in my district is we had low income housing units available for seniors. The number of years that it was low income was coming up, and I think it was gonna be 18 seniors were gonna be put on the streets and there's not 18 units for senior housing available. And so quickly leveraged with the city of Sonoma, Burbank Housing, and they came in with a solution to make sure that those housing units remained affordable. So I think that as a county we should be prioritizing more deed restricted housing projects.

KRCB NEWS: Sonoma County has a really strong nonprofit network. At the board's October 14 special meeting on federal budget cuts, we heard warnings about nonprofits already being overwhelmed ahead of funding cuts. What specific plans or funding commitments came out of that meeting to support those organizations and the families they serve?

HERMOSILLO:  Sonoma County has historically always been very supportive of nonprofits and community. There's a role and there's a place. Counties should not be operating nonprofits. We should not be the sole source of nonprofit funding. And so we really need to diversify how we support our nonprofits.

Because we were seeing the writing on the wall, we are going to have to really tighten our belt on where we invest our limited resources and how we make our dollars really stretch. And that is working with public and private partnerships.

It is really an opportunity for nonprofits to assess their mission. It is an opportunity for them to collaborate with other nonprofits. I've seen that in Sonoma Valley where nonprofits are literally merging and doing that really successfully. More strategic with their finances as well. So I hope that is incentive for nonprofits countywide.

A lot of nonprofits do really nuanced work and they can't, and so looking at how we can leverage philanthropy and public‑private partnerships.

KRCB NEWS: What is something you are hopeful for or excited about coming into this position as chair for 2026?

HERMOSILLO: You know, being able to work with my colleagues to govern a county innovatively. I'm piloting a program in Sonoma Valley that will help meet the gaps in services. There is a huge influx of aging constituents that need access to services. And they are in rural parts of not just my district, but in other parts of the county.

So I'm piloting a program to get services to the senior nurse. And I think it will be really successful. We are also piloting a mobile resource van, so that van will be able to go out to all districts and connect constituents to services. So it is really about being innovative with so much reduction in our cash flow.

KRCB NEWS: Can you explain a little bit more about innovative, what that means?

HERMOSILLO: Yeah. The mobile resource vans are going to be for farmworkers. We don't want to be a target to ICE and we want to be able to have constituents access those services.

So it is just going to be a mobile resource van, really discreet. It is going to look like a van, but it can go out to community to get folks connected to Medi‑Cal and CalFresh. And if it is not a county service, it is about connecting them to nonprofits too. So just a perfect example of being innovative like that.

KRCB NEWS: Is there anything else you want to add about your role as chair coming into 2026?

HERMOSILLO: I really pride myself in making myself available to constituents, either a call, email or virtual meeting, or in person. And so I think that if there is community input and feedback, it is always welcome. And just know that we are trying to diligently serve all of our constituents in Sonoma County as best we can. And we know we are navigating an uphill battle, but our hearts are all in the right place.