Santa Cruz County Housing Advisory Commission hears from public

Taking steps towards solving the housing crisis in Santa Cruz County.

The meeting was to talk about recommendations staff has for the county.

Wednesday the commission was hoping to hear some new ideas for how to help the housing crisis now.

One popular idea was increasing the bonus for developers who make affordable housing.

Median home prices in Santa Cruz County are nearing the million dollar mark.

It’s forcing out many people, including long time residents and forcing young people to get creative.

“At this point it’s either by some miracle, find a room in somebody’s basement to live in or wait for my parent’s to finally kick the bucket and I can inherit the house,” said Andrew Paolini, a twenty-something who grew up in Santa Cruz County.

But local leaders understand the struggle and that’s why the county housing advisory commission is working toward solutions.

“The Board of Supervisors realizes what an emerging need we’ve had in our county now for a number of years around providing affordable housing and asked this commission to do some work to send them recommendations they can act on quickly,” said Housing Advisory Commission chair J.M. Brown.

People got a chance to hear some of those recommmendations and one is all about getting developers to make more affordable housing.

“That was the sort of biggest, most important recommendation we sent to the board tonight,” Brown said, “That if developers are willing to build more affordable units in their projects, that we would allow additional density in those units.”

There was also talk about changes to farmworker and AG employee housing.

Though it’s just a start, the commission says there is progress being made.

“I’m hopeful and I think this commission feels really hopeful and I think we took a big step towards that,” Brown said.

The commission’s recommendations will be provided to the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on June 12th.

To see the full recommendations, click here.