Support Workforce Housing at 831 Water Street
Stand up for workforce housing! Welcome more neighbors into housing nearer jobs, shopping and public transportation.
831 Water Street would create 151 housing units, up to 51% which are affordable units. As proposed, the majority of the affordable rental units (47 of 77) are targeted for people making between 30% and 50% of our area’s median income (no more than $34,300 for a single person, $39,200 for a couple, or $49,000 for a family of four). This is a remarkable, significant achievement for a private, for-profit housing development!
While there are market rate units, they are targeted to be affordable to middle-income families and workers who want to live in the heart of Santa Cruz, who prefer using public transportation and bikes to get around the city instead of cars.
The project includes retail and spaces open to the community. It is connected to bus lines and within biking and walking of downtown. The project will allow those who work in Santa Cruz to live here, lessening long commutes and transportation woes.
831 Water Street helps alleviate our staggering housing shortage, and creates a more walkable, diverse, thriving Santa Cruz.
The project is facing NIMBY opposition and needs your support. If NIMBYs succeed, even in lowering the height of this project, the end result will simply be fewer affordable units.
Sign the petition today, and pass this along to other friends who want to say "yes" to new homes and "yes" to new neighbors!
Why do we like this project?
Adds 151 homes to Santa Cruz
Includes 77 subsidized affordable homes
Reserves forty-seven (47) of the homes for those who meet the qualifications for "very low-income" housing
Unbundled parking and located along a bus route save on parking costs for residents who don’t want or need a car
Mixed-use development with rooftop space open to the public
Density is key to climate-friendly cities, diversity and opportunity for all.
This is the affordable housing that everyone says they want for Santa Cruz. There are a mix of below market and market rate housing. This is workforce housing for the many people employed in the City of Santa Cruz who cannot find an affordable home in Santa Cruz and commute from the South County. It provides for different levels of affordability in a neighborhood currently unavailable to people with low incomes.
This project eases our transportation burdens and is good for the environment. It is possible to live here without a car, great for our underdeveloped public transit system and for the planet. The project is bikeable and walkable to neighborhood retail and downtown and on the bus transit corridor from Santa Cruz downtown to Watsonville.
This Project conforms to the general plan. Our community has spent years envisioning a plan for the future of Santa Cruz that emphasizes less reliance on cars, and promotes more opportunities for lower income people to be able to afford to live here. 831 Water St is exactly the type of project our general plan encourages: it’s centrally located, on a major thoroughfare with bus access, and provides community benefits such as ground floor retail and a roof top community space.
NIMBYs are opposing this project, so we need every YIMBY voice to be heard. The last community meeting had triple the number of NIMBYs speaking against this project. There are folks in the neighborhood gathering the opposition. We know there are many who support housing, so join us in SPEAKING UP!