Crews contracted by the City of Santa Cruz, aided by police, continued the second phase of clearing out Pogonip encampments Monday. Daniel Extine of Clean Team Associates, the Santa Cruz-based company contracted by the city to do most of the clearing, said workers expect to have all six phases of the cleanup completed by mid-July. Residents such as Santos Martinez, 58, were preparing to move to the armory.
Housing
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Keeley’s grassroots vision for Santa Cruz’s housing bond has been messy and complicated
Mayor Fred Keeley wants Santa Cruz community members to take the lead in drafting a housing bond measure to put before the city’s voters in 2024. But to this point, the process for this “citizen legislature” has been an uneven one.
Posted inLatest News
Are you a renter in California? Here’s what to know about tenant protections lawmakers are considering
California lawmakers introduced bills this year to strengthen rules against high rents and evictions. Landlords and realtors are fighting back.
Posted inEducation
Joint Cabrillo College-UCSC 624-bed housing project moving forward; public forum Monday
State Sen. John Laird said he’s “very optimistic” that the state will put $111 million toward a 624-bed student housing project being jointly developed by Cabrillo College and UC Santa Cruz. On Monday, Cabrillo College and UC Santa Cruz staff will discuss the joint housing proposal, its environmental impact reports and the possibility of the state grant. The meeting will be held in the Horticulture Building on Cabrillo’s Aptos campus.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Santa Cruz now eyes June 2024 for affordable-housing bond election after community members request more time
After initially aiming for a March 2024 vote, community members participating in drafting a long-sought affordable-housing bond measure in the city of Santa Cruz said Wednesday they wanted more time. Now, sights are set on a June 2024 special election.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
After very public Benchlands clearing, Santa Cruz taking quieter approach with Pogonip homeless encampment
In this edition of In the Public Interest, Christopher Neely looks at what’s different about efforts beginning Monday to clear the homeless encampment in Pogonip from how the City of Santa Cruz moved residents out of the San Lorenzo River Benchlands last fall.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Problems at your mobile home park? Here’s how to alert California officials
California officials depend largely on residents filing complaints to find out about health and safety problems at mobile home parks. Here’s how to file a complaint.
Posted inHousing & Development
First meeting on potential 2024 Santa Cruz housing bond debates affordable housing, downtown growth
Santa Cruz Mayor Fed Keeley hosted the first of three public meetings on a potential March 2024 housing bond ballot measure, along with City Councilmembers Scott Newsome and Sandy Brown, Director of Economic Development Bonnie Lipscomb and city attorney Tony Condotti.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Toward a March 2024 housing bond measure in Santa Cruz
James Weller, a local housing advocate, thinks he has an answer to our community’s most vexing issue, the fact that most of us cannot afford to pay the exorbitant cost of housing. The state has mandated Santa Cruz County build more, Weller writes, but developers won’t build unless they can make a profit by charging high rents. “But what if we had a public subsidization fund so we could pay developers some fraction of their marginal cost per unit” so that more units could be low-rent dwellings, he asks.”Maybe we could pay them enough to make a profit on the deal.”
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Santa Cruz’s phased sweep of Pogonip homeless encampment to begin next week
Last fall, after the City of Santa Cruz finished clearing the Benchlands homeless encampment, many people began relocating to the Highway 9-adjacent city park known as Pogonip. Next week, the city will begin evicting people from Pogonip.