Redding: Two residents sue Shasta County to tackle housing crisis

Two residents barely able to make ends meet say Shasta County is ignoring the critical housing needs of its low-income and homeless residents and flouting its legal obligations to plan for future development. Tracy Bowman, 81, and Micheal Williamson, 49, are suing the county to force officials to comply with state zoning laws that would give way to more affordable housing and emergency shelters. Bowman is a veteran on a fixed income recently forced to find a new and more expensive place to live, while Williamson, who has cerebral palsy, spends 80 percent of his $1,000 monthly disability income on rent and his share of utilities. For nearly four years, he had given up on finding housing and was using his entire income to pay to stay in motels. Their case over the county’s lack of planning is one more sign of how intense the affordable housing crunch has become in California. A report in February showed all but 13 cities and counties are failing to build enough housing. Among the 98 percent not keeping pace are the cities of Anderson, Redding, Shasta Lake and Shasta County.