In a high-stakes clash over what “affordable housing” really means in Marin, the Marin Housing Authority has sued the heir to a Marin City below-market townhouse, accusing him and his late mother of loading the property with loans and a reverse mortgage that violated program rules. The agency wants a judge to enforce strict resale restrictions that keep Below-Market-Rate homes affordable, and it is prepared to take the unit back if the court allows it.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Marin County Superior Court, names Warren Duane Jackson as the defendant, according to the Marin Independent Journal. The complaint traces the townhouse back to its purchase in 1997 with a HUD subsidy and says that over time it became heavily encumbered by a series of loans and a reverse mortgage. Kevin Rose, who has spoken publicly about the case, told the paper that the heart of the dispute is whether it is fair to try to take a home from people the BMR program is supposed to protect.
BMR Rules Designed To Keep Homes Affordable
Marin’s Below-Market-Rate program is built to keep a lid on long-term housing costs, not to fuel equity extractions. As the Marin Housing Authority explains, owners of BMR units face tight limits on borrowing and on resale prices so that homes remain within reach of moderate-income buyers.
Under the rules, total encumbrances on a BMR unit cannot exceed 90% of the restricted resale price. Certain life events, including the death of the title holder, can also trigger resale or repurchase options that allow the authority to step in and keep the home in the affordable pool instead of letting it drift toward market-rate territory.
Authority Says Loans Put The Unit Out Of Bounds
The complaint focuses on a series of loans that, according to the authority, pushed the Marin City townhouse far beyond those limits. It alleges that the late owner, Shirley Hall, took out a $900,000 reverse mortgage in 2015 that later went into default. After Hall’s death, Jackson is alleged to have obtained a $468,000 loan from CalCap Lending LLC in 2022 and a $560,000 loan from Quontic Bank in 2023…