UCSC Strike
As I write this, grad students at UCSC are on strike. They are asking for an additional $1,400 per month, on top of their current $2,400 monthly salary, just to cover the cost of living in Santa Cruz. Is UCSC treating its student employees unfairly, or is UCSC just another victim of the exorbitant housing prices that Santa Cruz has created?
Indeed, the cost of living in Santa Cruz is at a point where many would consider it a crisis. It costs $2,200 to rent the average one bedroom apartment, and $3,300 to rent a two bedroom apartment. For UCSC grad students, the percentage of their monthly income going to rent would be 123% for a one bedroom, or 76% for a bedroom in a two bedroom apartment. Regardless of whether you believe UCSC is exploiting their student employees, this is clearly an unacceptable situation.
Retail Workers
Every community has demand for low wage workers, including Santa Cruz. We have coffee shops, grocery stores, retail stores, and resturaunts that need employees. UCSC released a research report in 2015 surveying low wage workers, finding they were mostly making near minimum wage, not nearly enough to afford rent in the county.
"67% of the County’s Latino population spends at least 30% of their income on housing, while only 41.4% of Whites do the same." - UCSC
For a town that considers itself one of the most progressive places on the west coast, this disparity is striking.
Anecdotally, my parents own a retail store in Capitola. Hiring employees has been an ongoing struggle, it's almost impossible to run a small business that pays retail workers enough to live in the area while also making a profit on the business. Increasingly, I have noticed businesses closed randomly because of "staffing shortages", and one Chinese restaurant I frequent recently had to switch to take-out only because they couldn't afford staffing.
Retail workers working in Santa Cruz often commute long distances- from Watsonville, or even outside of the county, as that's the only way they can afford a residence. These long commutes are not only financially taxing, but they take people away from their families and generate a ton of pollution.
For people who argue Santa Cruz is priced correctly for what a beautiful place it is, I ask you to analyze this situation with our low wage workers and whether you think it's fair. Not only that, but are we doing right by our small businesses to keep home prices so high?
Least Affordable in the US
By many measures, Santa Cruz is one of the most unaffordable places to live in the US. This situation is bad, and although the most powerful voices in our community are homeowners who can ignore the problem, it may become harder to ignore as small businesses close, the university struggles to house its employees, and more people are commuting from south county, creating more gridlock. How did it get this way? Do we throw our hands up and blame Silicon Valley and the happening beach scene?
Silicon Valley has undeniably created a huge amount of demand in Santa Cruz. It's one of the most desireable places to live, and we are essentially an extension of the Bay Area. The county hasn't been a slouch either, with 6% job growth between 2007 and 2017. But was there nothing we could have done to prevent this situation? According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Santa Cruz has built a tiny fraction of the number of homes that were needed to address demand. In fact, from June 2018 to June 2019, the county only authorized 130 new homes, a fraction of the 660 homes built annually between 2003 and 2006.
"In addition to topographical restraints, residential development has been clustered in small urbanized areas such as the cities of Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley, and Watsonville because development in many other areas has significant opposition from the community." - Dept. of Housing and Urban Development
For the next three years, HUD expects demand for 730 new homes, but there are currently just 60 planned.
Why I Say Santa Cruz Housing Policy is Conservative
The housing market is not a special case; basic economics tells us how the price responds to various changes in supply and demand. In this case, demand has increased dramatically but supply has not kept up.
Santa Cruz is almost entirely zoned as single family residential (yellow in the image above). This was fine when demand was low, Silicon Valley wasn't adding jobs at a breakneck pace, and we hadn't been "discovered" yet. Times have changed, in many ways outside of our control, but Santa Cruz housing policy is stuck in the past. The old time residents of Santa Cruz, reminiscing on the past, are (understandably) resistant to changes allowing more neighbors to live here. Being resistant to change is, by definition, conservative.
One of the most effective ways of generating more housing is by increasing density. I know, "density" is a bad word, but if we are making a society more equitable and more environmentally friendly, it's a critical step to getting there. The UN says that "spatial planning prevents the construction of multifamily residences and locks in suburban forms at high social and environmental costs." (Page 59) This, in essence, means we need more density.
High density doesn't mean skyscrapers, eliminating Santa Cruz's character, or forcing people into small apartments. Santa Cruz needs more mixed use mid rises! Downtown already has some of this, with three to four story buildings mixing residential and commercial. People who live in places like this often live close to work, groceries, and activities. Consequently, they're less likely to own a car, especially if they're near high quality transit, in a walkable area, and have lots of good bike connections nearby.
What all this means is that we need more density, but the density doesn't need to be unsightly or distasteful. It also shouldn't be replacing neighborhoods in remote areas. By focusing density on areas where there's already jobs, activities, and transportation, we can create more housing without ruining what makes Santa Cruz so great.
So, Santa Cruz: Please build more housing, and please do it by increasing density near places that people want to be. Doing this allows us to reduce our collective environmental footprint, and lower the cost of housing, which benefits the marginalized people in our community while also helping small businesses. If you are a resident, go to city planning meetings to encourage swift approval of new developments!
You can get involved by following what's going on with the Santa Cruz Planning Commission and Santa Cruz YIMBY.
