HSCC In the News 

As we continue to see [the federal]  systematic dismantling of essential government functions and services, what can we do? One option is to take action locally to address the two most pressing issues on voters’ minds: housing affordability and homelessness. As the federal government retreats from its historic support in these two policy areas, we are left to fend for ourselves. We do have a real way to make more progress on these matters.

In one coastal Californian county with a history of resisting new housing, saving enough money for a down payment on a home takes more than two decades. It’s not San Francisco. It takes a middle-income household an estimated 21 years to afford a down payment for the typical home in Santa Cruz County.

Elaine Johnson, Executive Director of Housing Santa Cruz County, is interviewed by host Terry Trumbull. They discuss how municipalities that combine intention with creativity in determining how and where affordable housing can be built succeed in helping people secure stable housing.

A signature-gathering effort kicked off Thursday to put a new parcel tax and property transfer tax on the Nov. 4 ballot in the city of Santa Cruz. The taxes aim to raise $5 million annually for affordable housing and homelessness prevention.

The Workforce Housing Solutions Act aims to increase the supply of workforce housing in the City of Santa Cruz.

Housing Santa Cruz County Executive Director Elaine Johnson leads the campaign for the potential ballot initiative. If the backers can gather 3,620 signatures by May 17, it will qualify for the city of Santa Cruz’s November 2025 election and would require a simple majority vote to pass into law.

As we welcome 2025, we are faced with the urgent reality of the affordable housing crisis that continues to impact our city.

Neighbors airing concerns about public safety, zoning and government transparency did not convince the Watsonville Planning Commission to overturn the approval of a homeless village on a downtown church property this week.

Santa Cruz civic leaders unveiled an ambitious dual-tax proposal to fund affordable housing, blending a $99 annual parcel tax with a progressive real estate transfer tax. Aiming for the November 2025 ballot, the plan hopes to generate $5 million annually for the city.

The housing forum, organized by Lookout and co-hosted by local nonprofit Housing Santa Cruz County and sponsored by KAZU, attracted three prominent elected officials — state Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco, a leading voice in the state’s controversial efforts to push local communities to build more housing, alongside First District Santa Cruz County Supervisor Manu Koenig and Santa Cruz City Councilmember Sandy Brown.

(KION-TV) -- According to a report titled "2024 Out of Reach" from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, "Santa Cruz is now the "most expensive metropolitan county to live in, in the United States."

(KSBW-TV) Santa Cruz County — known for its beaches, amusement parks and desirable homes — is now the most expensive county to live in in the United States, according to a recent report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

For the second year in a row, a housing report has ranked Santa Cruz as the most expensive metropolitan county in the nation for renters.

June 27th, 2024 - SANTA CRUZ—On June 27, the National Low Income Housing Coalition released its 2024 Out of Reach report, showing Santa Cruz is now the most expensive metropolitan county to live in, in the United States, based on average 2-bedroom market rate rental costs. The report also confirmed that the state of California ranks as the most expensive state in the nation based on the same average.

June 5th, 2024 — Elaine Johnson was 15 before she realized that the “aunt” who lived with her grandmother was actually her grandmother’s partner of four decades.

In those days, LGBTQ largely had to live in the shadows, lest they draw scorn from a society not yet evolved enough to accept them.

June 4th, 2024 — Community Foundation Santa Cruz County announces $1.97 million to 92 local nonprofits including those supporting the wellbeing of youth, seniors, and families, contributors to arts and culture, and partners working toward a sustainable and resilient Santa Cruz County where all can thrive.

May 21st, 2024 — Along with Pacific Station South, Pacific Station North will bring the total number of new units on the corner of Pacific Avenue and Laurel Street to just shy of 200 by the end of 2026. The city celebrated its groundbreaking Monday as it prepares to open up Pacific Station South to tenants by the summer.

May 17th, 2024 — Housing Matters, in partnership with a host of participants representing local nonprofits, businesses and compassionate community members aims for a repeat show of force on Saturday morning. This year’s march will begin at City Hall and travel about a mile up Cedar Street and down Pacific Avenue before returning. Saturday’s event will begin with sign-making at 10 a.m., immediately before a 10:30 a.m. rally featuring guest speakers Housing Santa Cruz County Executive Director Elaine Johnson, Santa Cruz County Behavioral Health Deputy Director Karen Kern and Community Conversations Speakers Bureau members Mace Crowbear and Toni Rodriguez.

April 23rd, 2024 — As part of the 4th Annual Affordable Housing Month awareness campaign in Santa Cruz County, Housing Santa Cruz County is offering a diverse lineup of events, workshops, and other community engagement activities to encourage Santa Cruz County residents to learn, engage, and act to advance affordable housing solutions.

April 10th, 2024 — Housing Santa Cruz County (HSCC) is thrilled to announce May 2024 as Affordable Housing Month (AHM), promising to be the most extensive celebration of its kind in Santa Cruz County's history.

October 13th, 2023 — Community organizers and local city and law enforcement officials gathered Thursday night to discuss the struggles of tackling the region’s homelessness challenges in the face of Santa Cruz County’s escalating housing crisis.

October 14th, 2023 — The group behind the campaign for Measure O, known as Our Downtown, Our Future, held a conference at the London Nelson Community Center on Saturday centered around the subject of affordable housing.

August 31st, 2023 — A coalition of organizations concerned with high housing costs in the city of Santa Cruz have joined forces to take on the effort spurred by Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley and Councilmembers Scott Newsome and Sandy Brown in May to create a city-funded, community-driven tax revenue measure meant to bolster affordable housing projects.

August 28th, 2023 — It’s still not clear what form an effort to put Santa Cruzans’ dollars toward affordable housing will take, but that and other details could be resolved in the coming months as a citizens group irons things out.

August 11th, 2023 — Local housing leaders say they are pleased to see Santa Cruz County’s homelessness levels falling, but highlighted the deep-rooted issues that pervade the county. Those include food security, not enough shelters, low wages and no effective way to identify and track the entire unhoused population.

June 30th, 2023 — After years of unenviable ascent, the Santa Cruz-Watsonville metropolitan area has been named the most expensive rental market in the nation, according to a new housing report.

June 22nd, 2023 — Santa Cruz County tops the list of most expensive rental markets in the country, according to the nonprofit National Low Income Housing Coalition. According to the report, the fair market rent for a two-bedroom rental in the county is $3,293; renters would have to earn an average “housing wage” of $63.33 an hour to be able to afford that rent.

June 12th, 2023 — By 2031, under state mandates, Capitola will need to boost its affordable housing permitting by roughly 9,000% over what it permitted between 2015 and 2022; Scotts Valley will need to permit 803 new income-restricted units, a more than 4,000% increase.

June 6th, 2023 — The Democratic Women’s Club of Santa Cruz County would like to congratulate MidPen Housing, Housing Santa Cruz County, and all others involved in the 314 Jessie St. project for breaking ground last month on an amazing project.

May 30th, 2023 — A groundbreaking took place Tuesday for new affordable housing in Santa Cruz. The Natural Bridges Apartments will be a 20-unit development located on the west side of the city. All the units will be affordable to households at or under 50% of the area’s median income.

May 30th, 2023 — The Community Foundation Santa Cruz County announced distribution of millions in community grant funding for dozens of local nonprofits supporting the region’s diverse communities.

May 16th, 2023 — The next six months will be transformative for Santa Cruz County. In that time, each city council and the county board of supervisors (for the unincorporated areas) will be adopting “housing elements” that will serve as a blueprint of how each community meets its state-mandated housing needs.

May 9th, 2023 — Santa Cruz County is taking steps to tackle the housing crisis by launching a new program to help homeowners in unincorporated areas of the county build Accessory Dwelling Units, also known as ADUs, on their properties.

May 5th, 2023 — Finding an affordable place to live in Santa Cruz County isn’t easy these days. But finding a way to meaningfully change that is about to become a lot easier. Housing Santa Cruz County (HSCC), a diverse coalition dedicated to making Santa Cruz County affordable to all…

April 2nd, 2023 — The city cannot solve homelessness on its own, but it may be able to take a long-term bite out of the problem, according to Mayor Fred Keeley.

March 23rd, 2023 — Presenting a unified front in addressing homelessness head-on, a countywide coalition of service providers will rally and march through downtown April 1.

November 2nd, 2022 — The battle over Measure O is many things to many people, but at its base, it is an attempt by residents to push through their own vision for urban planning, one that contrasts against that of city staff.

October 18th, 2022 — Recently, the future of the unassuming lot has been catapulted into the local political spotlight, and is at the center of a debate that touches on two sensitive issues in Santa Cruz: affordable housing and community priorities.

Rise Together Santa Cruz County–an intercultural multi-generational coalition working together to support the vision and action needed to build a more just and equitable County–announces $400,000 in new grants.

Housing Santa Cruz County among those to receive grant funding.

October 11th, 2022 — When community members gather on Friday to celebrate $400,000 in new grants that will be awarded to BIPOC-led organizations, it will also be a celebration of how far the Rise Together initiative has come in the last two years.

September 6th, 2022 — Three years ago, the Santa Cruz City Council made the decision to scrap some four years of work by the city’s staff when it tossed out the so-called Corridors Plan, a proposal that would have aligned the city’s zoning rules with the community’s vision outlined in the 2030 General Plan.

August 31st, 2022 — With the city of Santa Cruz set to begin clearing the Benchlands homeless encampment in early to mid-September, the big question remains: Where will its inhabitants go?

August 13th, 2022 — It’s just before 7 a.m. on an overcast Saturday morning, and Rob Howarth is sitting at a table near the back of Ferrell’s Donut Shop. He’s focusing on a lottery scratcher and creating a mess of tiny gray shards with a penny, pausing every 30 seconds to draw another ticket from his pocket.

August 3, 2022 — The California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (CTCAC) delivered $16 million   in annual federal fire recovery tax credits to Santa Cruz County, allowing 397 affordable housing construction starts in Santa Cruz, Live Oak, and Watsonville to break ground this year.

August 9th, 2022 — There are many things that Santa Cruz County residents can boast about, including the astounding natural beauty of the place they live and its proximity to the coast. But there is one aspect that will likely not be found on a tourism brochure, and will likely come as no surprise to residents: The region is the second-least-affordable place to live in the nation.

July 29th, 2022 — Santa Cruz County has the disturbing but not surprising distinction of now being the second least affordable community in the entire country. It even ranks ahead of Silicon valley as far as rental affordability.

July 28th, 2022 — Coming in behind only the greater San Francisco area, a newly released housing report ranks the Santa Cruz-Watsonville metropolitan area as the second most expensive region in the nation for renters to reside.

July 28th, 2022 — Despite all the attention increasingly paid to housing affordability, Santa Cruz has moved up in the rankings. The just-released “Out of Reach” report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition puts hard numbers on just how difficult it is to find and pay for shelter.

July 28th, 2022 — It's expensive to live in California and a new report found exactly how much people need to make to afford to rent in the state, broken down by ZIP codes. In California, the "fair market rent" for a two-bedroom apartment is $2,028. That's according to a new report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

July 17th, 2022 — The future of a visionary downtown Santa Cruz project to deliver 124 units of affordable housing, a modern library and a childcare center is threatened by a misguided ballot measure built on falsehoods and half-truths. Three experts push back on arguments made by Our Downtown Our Future leaders,

July 16th, 2022 — Stephen Kessler asks us to forgive him as he writes endlessly about the Downtown Library/Affordable Housing project. There are many reasons he appropriately might ask for forgiveness. The obvious reason is that he’s already wasted so much time repeating falsehoods and uninformed comments about the downtown library.

June 29th, 2022 — While vocal neighborhood opposition turned out at Cabrillo College on Monday night, so did a fervent cast of believers in affordable housing projects…

June 24th, 2022 — As a local developer planning to build a 36-unit Project Homekey complex gears up to hear from the community Monday, advocates for and against the effort also are mobilizing their bases.

June 14th, 2022 — There is a solution to California’s very low and low income housing crisis, and it can be launched this month.

May 27th, 2022 — At the Housing Santa Cruz County forum Wednesday, hosted and co-sponsored by Lookout, local officials explained what’s been done and what’s on the drawing boards.

May 26th, 2022 — A large crowd of nonprofit, city and county officials gathered Wednesday to break ground on a development on Freedom Boulevard that will house 53 low-income families.

May 24th, 2022 — Santa Cruz needs to break old habits when it comes to affordable housing. That means local elected officials have to approve projects — even ones their constituents oppose, writes Don Lane

May 14th, 2022 — Standing before a small gathering on a bulldozed dirt lot off East Cliff Drive, MidPen Housing President and CEO Matt Franklin observed that, like many simple good ideas, housing developments can be “remarkably hard.”

May 12th, 2022 - May is Affordable Housing Month and yesterday, Wednesday, May 11th, marked the first groundbreaking event for a mixed-use development site that will provide Santa Cruz County with 57 affordable

May 11th, 2022 - After five years of development, a local nonprofit developer broke ground Wednesday on 57 units of affordable housing in Live Oak.

May 11th, 2022 — Ask 10 people on the street and the majority will say: “Yes, we need more affordable housing in Santa Cruz County.” Deciding where to build those units, however, is an ongoing challenge.

May 10th, 2022 — Newly released today, the California Housing Partnership’s 2022 Affordable Housing Needs Report shows that increases in the cost of living continue to push housing affordability..

May 3rd, 2022 — A local advocacy group is one step closer this week to enlisting voters’ support to halt construction of a new city library with an attached parking garage and affordable housing project.

May 3rd, 2022 — Regional housing needs allocation (RHNA) numbers are a fancy way of putting a metric to an area’s need to build a certain number of additional housing

April 29th, 2022 — What does affordable housing really look like in Santa Cruz — and what can community members learn about the process of planning, designing and building for affordability?

April 26th, 2022 — In the June 7 primary election, North Coast and Santa Cruz residents will choose a new District 3 representative on the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors.

April 20th, 2022 — The affordable housing crisis in Santa Cruz County affects each of us daily: a favorite teacher moves out-of-state when they can’t find housing locally, a barista working two jobs just to afford rent;

March 2022 — Housing Santa Cruz County, a countywide coalition of local organizations and individuals working to increase affordable housing opportunities for local residents and workers has named Brooke Newman

January 17th, 2022 — For those of us who don’t deal with inequity on a daily basis, equity might feel like a political concept. But for thousands of residents of our county, equity, or lack of it, determines what happens in their lives every single day.

December 3rd, 2021 — The state has given Santa Cruz a $20 million grant for the Pacific Station Project located in downtown Santa Cruz. It includes a major facelift for the Metro bus station and will also benefit two affordable housing projects on adjacent properties.

November 12th, 2021 — The Sentinel recently printed a Guest Commentary concerning the proposed ballot measure to block the Library Mixed Use Project planned for a City-owned downtown parking lot. Unfortunately, there were significant errors and omissions in that commentary.

September 28th, 2021 — The heated debate over a proposed multi-story parking garage, apartment building and library is rounding a corner and headed for the next level. Opponents of the project are preparing to gather signatures to try and stop it from ever breaking ground, while attempting to shape the future of downtown Santa Cruz.

May 28th, 2021 — A new report from the California Housing Partnership showed that a lack of affordable housing continues to trouble communities in Santa Cruz County. Among other findings, the data suggests that renters in the county

May 8th, 2021 — A while after I was elected to the City Council in 2018, I attended an inspiring workshop hosted by the City of Santa Cruz Economic Development Department and the National Development Council as part of Affordable Housing Month.

April 20th, 2021 — In early March, the city of Santa Cruz got word that it had scored $5 million from the competitive federal Local Housing Trust Fund (LHTF), which is administered by the State Housing and Community Development department. It was part of $57 million in competitive grants doled out statewide.

March 18th, 2021 — On Good News Santa Cruz on Thursday, March 18, 2021 Host Janet Quinn talks with Don Lane about the work that the coalition “Housing for Santa Cruz County” is doing to fulfill their mission, which is to ensure

March 6th, 2021 — The strongest communities have a shared purpose with rich social bonds and meaningful relationships. This special recipe is hard to find and often elusive for a community to create. However, these ingredients are precisely what attract many residents to Scotts Valley.

February 25th, 2021 — A new affordable housing advocacy group has formed in Santa Cruz County and it kicked off its arrival with a virtual meeting that was attended by more than a 100 community members and housing advocates across the county.

February 24th, 2021 — A coalition of organizations and community members has formed an affordable housing advocacy group. Housing Santa Cruz County will host a virtual kickoff event from 4-5 p.m. Thursday with keynote speaker, State Controller Betty Yee.