March 2022 Newsletter

Mar 4

At our February meeting, we reviewed the Housing Element timeline and where YIMBY help is needed. The Housing Element is an important affordable housing policy document that our cities and county will be working on until they are due to the state in December 2023. Learn more here.

Our Monthly Meeting, March 10th @ 5:30pm

Our endorsement process continues.
We will hear the case for and against Greenway.

This ballot initiative will be on the June ballot.

This meeting will be remote

Take Action

Sign the Petition

Support more student housing at UCs, CSUs and CCs! Our friends at The Student Housing Coalition urge you to support a great new bill in the works: SB886 (Wiener).

Click HERE to write your State Legislator

Add your support to SB843 (Glazer) which would dramatically increase California's renters' tax credit. Our friends at Housing Santa Cruz County have put together this tool to write to your state legislator in support.

The Empty Homes Tax initiative is looking for people to help with the signature gathering effort. The campaign is in its final push - and there are lots of ways to help this effort that raises funds for affordable housing.

Provide feedback on Santa Cruz Climate Action Plan 2030

Draft measures and actions for the Climate Action Plan 2030 are now available for review and feedback in an online, interactive tool called Consider.It, available in both english and spanish. The priority deadline for input is March 4, 2022.

#Powered By Me image - transportation plan

The draft County of Santa Cruz Active Transportation Plan is complete! Review the plan / Revise el plan aquí and share your comments in the short survey by March 25th.

Upcoming Events:

March 3 @ 7:00pm - Santa Cruz City Planning Commission The Planning Commission will consider the two appeals (ACLU and Santa Cruz Cares) to the Oversized Vehicle Ordinance (OVO). See full agenda and Zoom link here.
March 9 @ 6:00pm - Pacific Union Partners Project Community Meeting A webinar will be held on Wednesday, March 9th for the public to view design plans, provide feedback and ask questions about the Pacific Union Partners affordable housing project. The project location is 532 Center Street. Zoom link for the webinar.
March 15 @ 12:30pm - Enforcing California's Housing Laws - SPUR Pre-register for a link to this Digital Discourse here.
March 17 @ 2:00pm - How to Write an Op-Ed - YIMBY ACTION Come learn how to share your housing story in a compelling op-ed and get published in your local newspaper! Register: https://bit.ly/opedworkshop22
April 4-6, 2022 - Housing California 2022 Conference: A Roadmap To A Better California. A conference that brings together some of California’s top policy experts, elected officials, housing and homelessness advocates, and multi-sector leaders to discuss the steps we need to take to end our housing crisis and find our way to a better CA. More information here.

Student Housing Crisis

From The Student Housing Coalition:

California is facing a university housing crisis.

Across the state's higher education system, 5% of UC students, 11% of CSU students, and 19% of community college students experienced homelessness during their past year at school, not including the additional 11% of UC students in transitional or hotel housing.

Additionally, this year only 65% of Freshman applicants were admitted to a UC, compared to 84% in 1990. Our lack of expansion is causing access to opportunity to decrease.

Universities have been trying to build more housing, but have been stopped at every corner by lawsuits blocking new homes. Abusing the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to hold up student housing developments in years of litigation, anti-housing forces have successfully locked thousands of Californians out of receiving a college education.

Most prominently, we saw UC Berkeley being forced to reduce enrollment by 5,100 for the upcoming year due to a CEQA lawsuit. But this is not an isolated incident; West Village at UC Davis, Student Housing West at UC Santa Cruz, the Theatre District Living and Learning Neighborhood at UC San Diego, and the UCLA Extension at UCLA have all been caught in CEQA lawsuits, delaying these projects for years and resulting in fewer total beds.

CEQA has transformed from a well-intentioned policy to a means of blocking much needed student housing and is in desperate need of reform. That is why alongside the Associated Students of UC Davis, California YIMBY, and Senator Scott Wiener's office, we've worked to introduce SB 886. The bill will streamline the process for building on-campus student developments and prevent the use of abusive litigation.

No one should have to choose between getting an education and having a place to live, and SB 886 is a key step in ensuring that all Californians have access to our quality public colleges and universities.

Support Student Housing - Sign the Petition for SB886

Read more about SB886:

Senator Wiener Introduces the Student & Faculty Housing Act to Address Student Housing Crisis

California YIMBY Joins Sen. Scott Wiener to Announce the Student Housing Crisis Act (SB 886)

Student Housing Coalition members Sienna deCarion, Ray Diaz, Zennon Ulyate-Crow and Laz Meiman with State Senator Scott Weiner at announcement of SB886 in Sacramento.

Other Legislative News

Yes, there's always more on housing legislation, especially after last year when the YIMBY movement made history by ending single-family-only zoning in California. This year, our partners at California YIMBY have more big ideas to accelerate home building, advance climate and environmental protection, and ensure fair, equitable housing outcomes. California YIMBY's 2022 sponsored bills include:

SB 886 (Wiener) helps universities build student housing faster and at lower cost by streamlining the environmental review process for housing on university-owned land that is not at high risk of wildfire or in a sensitive habitat.
AB 889 (Gipson) increases transparency in housing ownership by requiring corporate and institutional housing investors to report exactly who owns and profits from the properties they buy and rent to tenants in California.
AB 2097 (Friedman) reduces housing costs and air pollution by eliminating expensive parking mandates on new homes built near high-quality transit.
AB 2221 (Quirk-Silva) accelerates building Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs, aka granny flats or casitas) by clarifying ambiguities in existing law and removing arbitrary barriers that some cities have imposed on ADU development.
AB 2873 (Jones-Sawyer) advances diversity, equity, and inclusion by requiring developers that receive state affordable housing dollars to report if the firms they contract with are owned and operated by people of color, women, or LGBTQ+ people.
SCA 2 (Allen) places an Article 34 repeal measure on the ballot. Article 34, which passed in 1950, gives wealthy neighborhoods veto power over affordable housing and worsens racial segregation.