The Homelessness Response Action Plan has been the City of Santa Cruz’s working policy document on homelessness since March 2022, and has guided its approach to connecting people on the street with services, shelter and permanent housing. However, the plan was largely shaped around a $14 million state grant that will run out next July, leaving funding for one of the region’s more successful homelessness strategies in question just as its momentum is beginning to build.
Housing
Posted inHousing & Development
Santa Cruz County realtors say housing market to strengthen as pandemic-era buyers rethink remote work, second homes
Santa Cruz County’s housing market had a slow summer, though home buyers still showed plenty of interest in more affordable South County and mountain communities. But with interest rates expected to dip by next year, some real estate agents say pandemic-era buyers might be starting to sell — and competition could heat up.
Posted inHousing & Development
Tenants group crashed Berkeley party for end of eviction moratorium. Then things got ugly
A group of landlords who gathered to celebrate the end of a pandemic eviction moratorium were confronted by an angry tenants group. Fists, chairs and food were thrown.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Can licensed tent villages ease California’s homelessness epidemic? This nonprofit thinks so
Taking people off the street and into tents is a new twist on homeless shelter being explored by the San Francisco-based Urban Alchemy in two tent villages operating in Los Angeles and Culver City.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz needs to stay a beach town: Let the people vote on high rises
Santa Cruz housing activist Susan Monheit believes Santa Cruz’s iconic status as a beloved beach town is endangered by planned development. Here, she responds to critiques by economist Richard McGahey, who, in a recent Lookout piece, called her advocacy and a petition by Housing for People circulating for the March 2024 ballot “misguided.” Below, she unpacks what Housing for People does and does not do.
Posted inEducation
624-bed joint Cabrillo-UCSC housing project closer to reality as state financial fix heads to Newsom
After months of uncertainty about funding, Cabrillo College and UC Santa Cruz say they’re ready to move forward with a 624-bed student housing project on Cabrillo’s Aptos campus. If all goes as planned, officials say they’ll start construction in September 2024 and students could move in by fall 2026.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz needs more housing density; misguided advocates are making our housing problems worse
Economist Richard McGahey, who has held federal, state and local leadership roles and is regarded as a national expert on urban and regional economic development, has a message for Santa Cruz: Stop supporting misguided housing petitions and policies aimed at curtailing growth. The only way to move Santa Cruz off the list of the nation’s most expensive cities, he says, is to build. He lives part-time in Santa Cruz and points to the petition by the group Housing for People as an example of ill-considered advocacy.
Posted inHousing & Development
Even the least expensive areas of California are becoming unaffordable, and more desirable
See which California cities are the most costly to live in. Several studies agree: The premium to live in California might be 40% to 50% over the national average.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Housing crisis takes center stage as Senate race comes to Santa Cruz County
After visits by Reps. Katie Porter, Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee, vying for the Democratic nomination to replace the retiring Dianne Feinstein in the U.S. Senate, Christopher Neely breaks down what he heard from each on one of Santa Cruz County’s most pressing concerns: housing.
Posted inK-12 Education
After revealing surprise enrollment jump, PVUSD says student population might have actually dropped by 675
Last week, Pajaro Valley Unified School District said total numbers for its schools appeared to show about 500 more students enrolled this year than expected. But upon closer look, officials say they accidentally included dependent charter schools in the district’s total enrollment figures. Interim Superintendent Murry Schekman said the realization the district’s enrollment was in fact continuing on a downward trend is frustrating and makes planning for the district difficult. Schekman sees cost of living as the primary driver for the trend.