Santa Cruz County could see $140m bond measure in November
A new ballot measure is aiming to tackle the housing crisis in Santa Cruz County.
Measure H would raise $140 million, which supporters say could house up to 1,500 families in the county.
The Yes on H campaign held a rally in downtown Santa Cruz on Tuesday, highlighting just how expensive housing is on the Central Coast and in the county.
“Even people who have decent jobs and have decent income struggle to find a place, let alone people who have lower wage jobs. They just cannot find an affordable place,” said Don Lane, the co-chair of the Yes on H campaign.
Voters in Santa Cruz County may get to decide on Measure H if the county’s Board of Supervisors approves the initiative for the November ballot.
The measure would go toward directly building affordable rental housing, giving down payment assistance to local first-time home buyers and creating housing with homeless and mental illness support services.
The organizers of Measure H originally called for $250 million, but the campaign brought that number down.
“We were trying to find a sweet spot,” said Lane. “We know people are committed to addressing the housing crisis, but people have their own pocket books to watch out for.”
If the measure passes, commercial and residential property owners in Santa Cruz County would see an increase in their property tax. It would be about $17 per $100,000 in property value.
“I’ll use myself as an example, I’m a homeowner in Santa Cruz,” said Lane. “For me, it’ll be somewhere in the neighborhood of $75-$80 per year.”
The money would be divided among all four cities in the county as well as the unincorporated areas.
The need is there. MidPen Housing, a non-profit that develops affordable homes, says it is just finishing a 46-unit housing complex in Watsonville and they have already got over 2,000 applications.
“These are numbers that we’re typically used to seeing in the Bay Area, but now we’re seeing them here. So it’s very shocking to see how much the need has grown in just a few years,” said MidPen Housing Project Manager Diana Alfaro.
Voters in Santa Clara, Alameda and Los Angeles Counties have all approved similar measures in the last couple years.
