Funcionarios de la ciudad celebraron el jueves la apertura de uno de los muchos nuevos edificios de apartamentos en el centro de Santa Cruz.
Housing & Development
Posted inHousing & Development
New housing along San Lorenzo finally opens, connected to the river for first time in decades
City leaders and Santa Cruz community members celebrated the grand opening of the RiverRow apartments, located along the San Lorenzo River. The downtown development is unique because it opens onto the river, instead of facing away.
Posted inLatest News
Santa Cruz City Council takes first step to rezone Coral Street for expanded temporary housing, homeless services
The Santa Cruz City Council voted to rezone the Coral Street area to allow expanded homeless services and temporary housing, taking the first step toward creating a Coral Street Overlay District envisioned in a 2023 plan for a centralized services campus. A final vote is set for March 24.
Posted inLatest News
Some State Farm customers could see refunds while homeowner rate hikes stay put
State Farm has reached a settlement over emergency insurance rate hikes after last year’s Los Angeles County fires.
Posted inHousing & Development
California has 40,000 affordable housing units ready to break ground. One bottleneck is holding them up
Tens of thousands of affordable units across California are stuck in financial purgatory, according to a new report. Will more money get them moving?
Posted inHousing & Development
Santa Cruz City Schools to break ground on county’s first educator workforce housing March 18
Santa Cruz City Schools is set to break ground on an $80 million housing project – the county’s first educator housing complex. The project on the Westside will have studios, one-bedroom apartments, two-bedroom apartments and three-bedroom apartments for 100 staff.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Dominican Oaks: When fear of lawsuits trumps public and senior safety, Santa Cruz County loses
A massive builder’s remedy project proposed at 3500 Paul Sweet Rd. in Live Oak would rise 82 feet beside Dominican Oaks retirement community, putting hundreds of elderly residents at risk, writes Virginia Lieb, who lives in the complex. State law allows counties like Santa Cruz County to deny such projects when they pose unmitigable threats to health and safety – and this one, she believes, does. She fears the recent approval of a project at 841 Capitola Rd. suggests local officials are backing down under the threat of lawsuits from developers like Workbench. Approving unsafe housing isn’t housing justice — it’s a failure of leadership that puts vulnerable residents in harm’s way, she writes.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Expiring housing vouchers and new citizenship requirements: Housing Authority braces for policy changes that could cost people their homes
The Housing Authority of Santa Cruz County is facing a number of serious concerns this year, including the expiration of pandemic-era emergency housing vouchers and proposed changes to federal policy that could mean more households are ineligible for assistance. However, the organization’s executive director is “cautiously optimistic” that it will be able to provide an alternative.
Posted inHousing & Development
Capitola City Council pushes mall zoning code vote to March
The Capitola City Council delayed a vote on zoning code updates for the Capitola Mall site to March in order to wade through last-minute information and new requests from the mall’s owner. The vote is currently scheduled for March 16.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
I hope my UCSC class will help our community conversation on addressing homelessness
Housing advocate Don Lane has invited journalist and author Brian Barth to talk to the community – and to his class of 25 UC Santa Cruz students studying homelessness – to discuss why encampments exist and what we should do about them. He hopes the Feb. 27 event at the downtown library will help deepen our understanding of the issue and involve the next generation in finding solutions.