Housing crisis demands some major changes

If you just read headlines last week in the Sentinel, you’d think the affordable housing crisis in Santa Cruz County might soon be alleviated.

Here’s a few (and note the obstacles):

Construction has begun on a seven-story, mixed-use, 205unit apartment building on the corners of Pacific Avenue and Laurel and Front streets. A group that aims to feed the homeless recently was evicted from the parking lot where the construction work is starting.

In January, the Santa Cruz City Council voted to approve a mixed-use apartment building that will overlook the San Lorenzo River off of Front Street; 11% of the 175 units will be considered affordable to low-income households at 50% of the area median income and an additional five at 80% of the area median income, which was about $89,000 for households, according to the 2019 U.S. Census. One councilmember criticized the project as an unaffordable, high-end development that will bring higher-income people to Santa Cruz, drive up the median income and exacerbate the affordability issue.

In the discussion stage: the Water Street Development, a proposed five-story,59-foothigh apartment building in the Branciforte neighborhood, which would have 151 apartments varying in size. Of those, 51% will be set aside for affordable housing. Residents in the area say the project is too high, will block sunlight, and create an unwelcome precedent for subsequent developments.

Two new apartment complexes, one of which will contain 100% affordable units, are set to be built in Watsonville. But some community members note that rents at one of the developments are projected to range from $1,700 a month minimum to$2,000 and upward – unaffordable to many local people in a city where agricultural workers predominate.

A new local affordable housing advocacy group formed and noted that in order to afford market-rate housing in Santa Cruz, a tenant would have to make more than $41 an hour.

That’s just renting. With the median price of housing for sale across the entire county reaching $1.2 million, you’d have to be earning more than $200,000 annually to afford a home in that price range with a $120,000 down payment – and expect monthly payments of $6,000 and upwards, not including property taxes.

That’s if you can find a home for sale, since inventory is at historic lows.

In Friday’s Editorial, we noted how much of the buying, and renting, is coming from out of town money. But the greater issue, is a lack of housing supply, and, despite local obstacles, it’s one, much like homelessness, local communities can’t solve on their own.

So what is the state government planning?

When he was running for governor, Gavin Newsom promised he’d oversee building 3.5 million new housing units by 2025. Critics quickly pointed out that this would never happen. It would mean in a state where coastal NIMBYism, strict environmental laws and byzantine planning regulations make building both prohibitively expensive and difficult to get underway, new construction would have to escalate from about 100,000 units a year to 500,000.

Then, to make Newsom’s goal even more unlikely to be realized, the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Now, the state’s housing shortage has gotten worse. Earlier this month, the Department of Finance revealed just 102,800 residential building permits were issued in 2020, down 8.8% from 2019, itself 3.8% below 2018.

But, a modest housing bill last year that would have made it easier to build duplexes and other multi-family projects on lots zoned for single-family homes disappeared amid a legislative squabble.

Now, a new version of that bill has been introduced along with others that would speed up construction and begin to confront local obstacles to building low- and moderate-income housing. The most significant is SB 478, which would neutralize local ordinances that prevent construction of multi-family projects on land zoned for them.

Watch closely to see if elected leaders are able to make progress alleviating our deepening housing crisis — and decide whether we want local policies and attitudes on housing to change.