A Snapshot of
Southwest Santa Rosa
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About the Snapshot
Extreme heat events are increasing and Southwest Santa Rosa residents, community-based organizations, and local governments have been working together to address long-term disparities that have resulted in the neighborhood being disproportionately impacted by extreme heat.
Building upon existing work in the community, Latino Service Providers and Greenbelt Alliance are working in partnership to develop a community-driven extreme heat action plan – a roadmap for prioritizing policies, infrastructure, and programming to reduce the harmful impacts of extreme heat and create a cooler Southwest Santa Rosa for all. The Southwest Santa Rosa Snapshot is a deep dive into the history, demographics, and characteristics of the neighborhood that make Southwest Santa Rosa the vibrant and culturally-rich community it is today, as well as the factors that contribute to heat vulnerability.
The Snapshot will inform the development of community engagement strategies, actions, and best practices for equitable outreach. Analyzing neighborhood history, racial, linguistic, age, household income, educational attainment, and characteristics of the built environment, the Snapshot provides recommendations for outreach and engagement that is reflective of the needs of the local community. These actions are outlined in a summary at the end and can be found reflected in the Community Engagement and Research Plan.
Neighborhood Background
Southwest Santa Rosa sits at the intersection of Sonoma County’s urban and agricultural landscapes. On one side, the City of Santa Rosa—the wine country’s largest city—has an idyllic downtown area with its tree-lined streets and tasting rooms. But on the other side of Highways 12 and 101, Southwest Santa Rosa presents a very different picture.
This region is a patchwork of residential, agricultural, and industrial land uses that reflects the neighborhood's evolution over time, shaped by annexation, shifting boundaries, and strong local advocates and partners.
In this neighborhood, food trucks are plentiful, while a shaded street is hard to come by. To the naked eye, this part of Santa Rosa is stark, but beyond its industrial vibe is a diverse, multigenerational community steeped in a myriad of Latinx culture. With the area’s bountiful agricultural industry at its doorstep, many residents in Southwest Santa Rosa are critical workers in this local economy and will be at the frontlines as climate change reshapes the nature of agricultural work.
Vulnerability to extreme heat and wildfire impacts makes this area a critical Hotspot for prioritizing nature-based solutions to benefit those at greatest risk. The prevalence of housing insecurity in this community—largely made up of cost-burdened renters—means that individual interim strategies like energy efficiency improvements and air conditioning are not always feasible, making policy change, community resources, and shade access critical components in building a more resilient neighborhood.
Extreme Heat Poses a Growing Risk
Southwest Santa Rosa will experience an increase in hot days and warm nights over the next century. In July 2022, the city broke records when a week-long heatwave reached temperatures around 115 F. The region contains large areas of paved surfaces, sparse tree canopy, and fewer homes with air conditioning, making extreme heat days even more dangerous.
At the beginning of the 21st century, Southwest Santa Rosa experienced an average of 5 extreme heat days and 5 warm nights per year. Scientists estimate that the same region will experience an average of 14 extreme heat days and 38 warm nights per year by 2050 and 23 extreme heat days and 102 warm nights per year by 2100.
In urban environments, the “urban heat island” effect—disproportionate warming of an urban area because of buildings, pavement, and human activity—can increase temperatures from 1.8 to 5.4 degrees—a 200% increase. Places experiencing urban heat islands often experience high indoor and nighttime temperatures that are strongly correlated with adverse health effects.
A diverse community with strong Latinx culture and connections
A hub of diversity in Sonoma County, Southwest Santa Rosa is home to a majority of Hispanic and Latinx residents. At 52%, the neighborhood has almost double the percentage of Hispanic and Latinx residents than the City of Santa Rosa (34%) and Sonoma County (28%).
Drawn to the neighborhood family-run businesses, the colorful food trucks lining the streets, and the tight-knit nature of the community, many immigrants and people of color call Southwest Santa Rosa home, with over 80% of residents identifying as non-white. (See chart for more detail).
The racial diversity of Southwest Santa Rosa is matched by its linguistic diversity. Over half of Southwest Santa Rosa residents (50.6%) speak a language other than English; this rate is much higher than the City of Santa Rosa (33.7%) or Sonoma County (26.2%). Spanish is the most common language spoken after English at 44.6%, but Vietnamese and Eritrean are other dominant languages.
The strong cultural ties and sense of place that is rooted in the cultural familiarity and shared language within the community are important to take into account to ensure that community engagement is reflective of the values and priorities of local residents.
Community Engagement Recommendation
The diversity of the community highlights the importance of making translation and interpretation services available throughout the engagement process. Additionally, the presence of a large Latinx population and a broader immigrant community will also require thoughtful and intentional planning to ensure the safety and comfort of residents. Feelings of unrest, distrust, and fear due to the current political climate may pose a large barrier to reaching communities whose input is central to the planning process.
A Large Youth Population Eager to Make Change
The age distribution in Southwest Santa Rosa shows the population is fairly young, with roughly one third, or 30%, of the population under age 20. Youth are especially vulnerable to extreme heat impacts given that they are often playing outdoors, in schools with no air conditioning and can experience severe impacts to learning and cognitive function as a result of extreme heat. This highlights the critical role that youth play in shaping the future of the community. Additionally, given the large number of children and families, it is important to make sure that outreach activities and heat interventions are welcoming to families and can accommodate multiple generations.
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Community Engagement Recommendations
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The large youth population highlights the importance of engaging youth in the development of the HEAT Action Plan. Youth have historically been overlooked in planning processes, and this engagement plan seeks to uplift youth experiences and knowledge with extreme heat in their community. Engaging Latino Service Providers’ youth promotores, known as Climate Impact Innovators, to serve as trusted sources of extreme heat information will be key to integrating youth perspectives.
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All engagement events should provide childcare services and opportunities for engaging youth where feasible.
Households feeling the strain with high rent costs and lower incomes compared to the city as a whole
Southwest Santa Rosa’s median income is significantly lower than the rest of Sonoma County ($42,000/yr vs. $72,000/yr, respectively). Additionally, renters are a significant part of the housing market in Southwest Santa Rosa, with 47.5% renters in the community. Renters are more vulnerable to housing insecurity and displacement and less likely to be able to retrofit their homes to adapt to extreme heat and climate change.
As is the case across the state, housing prices in Santa Rosa have significantly increased over recent years (over 40% increase between 2016-2021). This contributes to challenges related to housing cost burden (where households spend more than 30% of their monthly income on housing) and a high cost of living.
Lower-income households are more vulnerable to the impacts of extreme heat events. Families may be in positions where they have to choose between meeting basic needs and disaster preparedness, and often lack the ability to refrain from working and being outdoors during times of extreme heat.
Community Engagement Recommendations
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To help ensure that all residents can participate in engagement opportunities, at a minimum, all engagement events should provide culturally-appropriate food options, childcare services, payment for participant time and expertise commensurate with the engagement conducted, host events outside of traditional working hours, and provide translation and interpretation services.
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Engaging the large renter population will be critical due to the unique extreme heat vulnerabilities renters face. Renters and low-income households are more at risk of displacement, housing instability, and are less able to retrofit their homes to withstand the impacts of extreme heat and power shutoffs, which are becoming more common due to increasing temperatures.
Sonoma County is a hub for farmworkers and outdoor workers
Over 11,000 farmworkers are employed in Sonoma County, and 95% of those are Latinx. Many of the farmworkers in Sonoma County’s agricultural industries reside in Southwest Santa Rosa, drawn to the community due to affordable housing costs and the vibrant Latinx culture of the neighborhood. Farmworkers are an integral part of the city and regional economy, yet they often face the greatest impact of environmental hazards and are left out of disaster recovery efforts.
In California as a whole, 90% of agricultural workers are immigrants from Latin America, and an estimated 57% are undocumented. Many farmworkers in Sonoma County and Southwest Santa Rosa experience barriers to climate disaster recovery efforts due to language access and documentation status. Hazardous outdoor working conditions due to extreme heat and wildfire smoke add to other environmental health risks associated with agricultural work, like pesticide exposure.
Community Engagement Recommendations
Engaging farmworkers and outdoor laborers in the HEAT Action Plan will be critical due to the unique risks that they face due to the nature of their occupation. To meet the community where they are, the HEAT Action Plan team will ensure that engagement takes into account the seasonal and long hour work days that characterize farm work.
Local workers are focused in the service, healthcare, and manufacturing industries
In Southwest Santa Rosa, over 10% of residents work in construction with another 12% working in manufacturing industries. Additionally, retail, arts and tourism make up a large share of jobs accounting for over a quarter of southwest santa rosa workers. While census data indicates that roughly 4 percent of residents work in agricultural industries, it may be higher considering lack of accurate data on undocumented and seasonal workers. See chart for more info.
Roughly 18% of Southwest Santa Rosa residents (51%) have some college or an associate's degree. In comparison, 8% of the population have a bachelor's degree or higher, and only 18% of the population have less than a high school diploma, with just 12% of residents having a bachelor’s degree or higher. Understanding the educational attainment rate of the community will be key to developing accessible engagement and outreach materials.
Community Engagement Recommendation
Given that many residents work in retail, tourism, and service industries, it will be important to consider timing and accessibility of engagement activities to allow for participation.
Transportation and Commute Patterns
The commuting pattern in Southwest Santa Rosa shows that most people are heavily reliant on cars, with 73.9% of residents commuting alone by car and 13.4% carpooling to work. However, 15.7% of residents do not have access to cars and are more likely to rely on other means, such as walking, carpooling, or public transportation, to get around. Residents who lack access to a car are more likely to be exposed to dangerous temperatures during extreme heat events and find accessing cooling centers or other resources a challenge. Extreme heat exacerbates inequities in mobility and active travel participation, forcing people to travel in dangerous temperatures.
Most of the commute patterns for work also show locals do not travel far to their work. This suggests that with proper policy interventions and urban design/planning recommendations, such as shaded bus stops, more frequent and cost-effective public transportation options, and better infrastructure for active transportation (walking and cycling) , more heat-resilient transportation and mobility plans can be made possible.
Community Engagement Recommendation
Since most residents have access to a car, physically accessing meetings or events will likely not be a major challenge for most residents. However, since the public transportation infrastructure is so lacking, it is especially important to engage local residents and workers that do rely on public transit and do not have reliable vehicle access and understand their unique heat vulnerabilities.
Public Health Impacts of Heat Events
Southwest Santa Rosa experiences an average of 16 additional emergency room visits for heat-related problems on extreme heat days. Heat events have disproportionate impacts on children, the elderly, outdoor workers, and those with chronic illnesses and health conditions. Between 2009 and 2018, there were 9,564 ER visits due to extreme heat in Southwest Santa Rosa alone—this averages to nearly 1,000 ER visits per year for heat-related illnesses (UCLA). Heat events are one of the most deadly climate disasters, causing more than 7,800 deaths nationally over 10 years (Climate Toolkit).
Populations with higher rates of asthma and pollution are more susceptible to heat-related illnesses. Additionally, factors like language, documentation status, and whether or not an individual has health insurance may inform a person’s decision to seek medical attention when they are experiencing heat stress.
Less than one-third of farmworkers have some form of health insurance (Sonoma County Department of Health Services, Sonoma County Farmworker Health Survey (FHS) 2013 –14). Nationally, farmworkers are 20 times more likely to die from illnesses related to heat stress than U.S. civilian workers overall.
Community Engagement Recommendation
There is an opportunity to partner with public health professionals and community health educators to coordinate messaging and outreach around extreme heat risks and resilience opportunities. Messaging and outreach should be provided through trusted messengers and in culturally appropriate ways in order to effectively reach populations most at risk of heat-related illness, including older adults, youth, people with chronic diseases, farmworkers, and those working outdoors.
Parks and Tree Canopy
Southwest Santa Rosa’s development history has resulted in a checkerboard of development interspersed with agricultural uses and open spaces, especially around the Airport. This offers opportunities to expand access to parks and open spaces to make heat refuge, recreation, and health benefits available to local residents, and children in particular. This is of vital importance considering the community’s current lack of parks and green spaces as compared to the rest of the city.
The City of Santa Rosa maintains a park standard of six acres of parkland per 1,000 residents. However, Southwest Santa Rosa has less than 1 acre of parks per 1,000 residents, amounting to just 7% of Santa Rosa’s total 531 acres of parkland.
Trees and plants provide essential shade, and the canopy from large trees helps reduce heat. The need for green spaces and parks is higher when considering the lack of adequate sidewalk and bike infrastructure in Southwest Santa Rosa, which further limits the ability, for children in particular, to access local parks and open spaces.
Additionally, as a result of the area’s development history, Southwest Santa Rosa does not have many public community facilities and meeting places. Local businesses and large retail chains serve a unique role in providing heat refuge for residents looking for places to cool off.
Community Engagement Recommendations
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Understanding the historical disparity in greenspace access, and generational advocacy efforts of Southwest Santa Rosa residents, will be critical to informing outreach and engagement strategies for the HEAT Plan and community priorities more generally.
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Partnering with local businesses will be key to identifying gaps in cooling resources within Southwest Santa Rosa. Local businesses can also serve as key channels of information sharing and communication with the community. As a key part of the Southwest Santa Rosa community, preparing businesses to be prepared for extreme heat events will be important to increase overall resiliency.
Pollution Concerns Stemming from the Prevalence of Industrial Uses
Southwest Santa Rosa’s location between highways and the regional airport results in poor air quality, which can severely impact children and people working outdoors.
Bordered by Highways 12 and 101 and adjacent to the regional airport, census tract 1531.04 in Southwest Santa Rosa ranks in the top 96th percentile for exposure to diesel particulate matter, the 89th percentile for populations with cardiovascular disease, and the 80th percentile for those with asthma. Other tracts in Southwest Santa Rosa also experience high pollution burdens with high asthma rates across the neighborhood.
As a community-driven HEAT Action Plan, the planning process is rooted in the belief that Southwest Santa Rosa residents have expert knowledge of their own community and know what extreme heat adaptation actions are best suited for themselves and their neighborhood. Through a collaborative process of research and community engagement, the HEAT Action Plan ensures that community members are engaged from the very beginning. Working with the Climate Impact Innovators, a cohort of 13 Southwest Santa Rosa youth helping inform plan development and outreach strategies, the HEAT Action Plan centers the voices of one of the neighborhood's most heat-impacted populations and continues to help cultivate the spirit of environmental activism and community organizing that is deeply rooted in the community.
From focus groups, interviews, heat monitoring workshops, and interactive events, the HEAT Action Plan will utilize a series of diverse community engagement and research strategies to understand local heat experiences and community priorities for heat adaptation. Bringing community members along in the planning process allows for the development of extreme heat solutions that are more implementable, place-based, and readily-adopted by the community.
Equitable Community Engagement Recommendations
Taking account the history and unique characteristics of Southwest Santa Rosa, this section outlines a set of community engagement recommendations to ensure that equity is prioritized and all residents are met in a way that best fits their needs.
Plan for engagement that is delivered in the most commonly spoken language, and develop multilingual engagement materials. The diversity of the community highlights the importance of making translation and interpretation services available throughout the engagement process.
Build trust and host engagement events in trusted community spaces. The presence of a large Hispanic or Latinx population and a broader immigrant community will also require thoughtful and intentional planning to ensure the safety and comfort of residents. Feelings of unrest, distrust, and fear due to the current political climate may pose a large barrier to reaching communities whose input is central to the planning process.
Uplift youth voices and lived experience. The significant young people population highlights the importance of engaging youth in the development of the HEAT Action Plan. Youth have historically been overlooked in planning processes, and this engagement plan seeks to uplift youth experiences and knowledge with extreme heat in their community.
Reduce barriers to participation and meet the basic needs of community engagement participants. To help ensure that all residents can participate in engagement opportunities, at a minimum, all engagement events should provide culturally-appropriate food options, childcare services, payment for participant time and expertise commensurate with the engagement conducted, host events outside of traditional working hours, provide accessibility accommodations, provide translation and interpretation services.
Understand and explore the unique extreme heat challenges faced by renters. Renters and low-income households are more at risk of displacement, housing instability, and are less able to retrofit their homes to withstand the impacts of extreme heat and power shutoffs, which are becoming more common due to increasing temperatures.
Uplift and honor the lived experience of Southwest Santa Rosa’s large farmworker and outdoor laborer community. Farmworkers and outdoor workers are on the frontlines of extreme heat impacts. Many of them are forced to work in dangerous conditions due to a lack of standard worker protections and financial constraints that force workers to prioritize working over personal health and well-being.
Understanding the historical disparity in greenspace access, and generational advocacy efforts of Southwest Santa Rosa residents, will be critical to informing outreach and engagement strategies for the HEAT Plan and community priorities more generally.
Partnering with local business and food places will be key to identifying gaps in cooling resources within Southwest Santa Rosa. Local businesses can also serve as key channels of information sharing and communication with the community. As a key part of the Southwest Santa Rosa community, preparing businesses to be prepared for extreme heat events will be important to increase overall resiliency.
Collaboration with local stakeholders and the City of Santa Rosa to support effective implementation. Strong partnership with local stakeholders, including community-based organizations, schools, health providers, the City of Santa Rosa, and regional stakeholders are needed to guide policy recommendations for better urban/infrastructural-based solutions and ensure they are feasible, culturally responsive, and implementable.
Conclusion
Southwest Santa Rosa is one of the most culturally diverse neighborhoods in Santa Rosa. The neighborhood is culturally rich, with community institutions, beloved small businesses, and strong non-profit and community-based organization partners. However, due to patterns of development and lack of investment, there are significant disparities when it comes to features of the built environment that relate directly to health and climate resilience, including access to green spaces, inadequate tree canopy, and poor public infrastructure. These disparities in key green infrastructure resources contribute to Southwest Santa Rosa’s vulnerability to extreme heat.
Understanding the history and characteristics of the Southwest Santa Rosa neighborhood will allow for the development of community engagement strategies that reflect the daily lives and needs of local residents.
Works Cited
Extreme heat | U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit. (n.d.). https://toolkit.climate.gov/extreme-heat
Climate Metrics Map - Cal-Adapt. (n.d.). https://cal-adapt.org/dashboard/climate-metrics-map?metric=extreme-heat
U.S. Census Bureau. (n.d.). American Community Survey 5-Year Estimate Subject Tables, Table B03002, 2023. https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2023.B03002?q=b03002
U.S. Census Bureau. (n.d.-b). “Hispanic or Latino Origin by Race,” American Community Survey 5-Year Estimate Subject Tables, Table B03002, 2023. https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2023.B03002?q=b03002
U.S. Census Bureau. (n.d.-c), “Language Spoken at Home,” American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates Subject Tables, Table S1601, 2023. https://data.census.gov/table/ACSST5Y2023.S1601?q=S1601:+Language+Spoken+at+Home&g=050XX00US06041_1400000US06041112100,06041112202,06041112203
U.S. Census Bureau. (n.d.-d), “Age and Sex,” American Community Survey 5-Year Estimate Subject Table, Table S0101, 2023. https://data.census.gov/table/ACSST5Y2023.S0101?t=Age+and+Sex&g=010XX00US_050XX00US24017
US Census Bureau. (2026, May 22). American Community Survey 5-Year Data 2021. Census.gov. https://www.census.gov/data/developers/data-sets/acs-5year/2021.html
US Census Bureau. (2026b, May 22). American Community Survey 5-Year Data 2021. Census.gov. https://www.census.gov/data/developers/data-sets/acs-5year/2021.html