Senate District 17 Candidates weigh in on affordable housing, homelessness
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION) Senator Bill Monning is serving his final term in the California State Senate, leaving his seat open for the taking. Four candidates are vying for the spot and have big issues, like affordable housing and environmental protection, on their minds.
They all come from different backgrounds: a former legislator, a business
woman, a rancher and a non-profit executive director. But despite their
differences, they all have a common goal: they hope to get your vote and
represent Senate District 17 in the state legislature.
The district stretches from Santa Cruz County down to San Luis Obispo
County, including portions of Monterey and Santa Clara counties.
Major Central Coast cities like Monterey and Santa Cruz fall within the
district–cities that are seeing the impacts of California’s housing
shortage and affordability crisis.
Affordable housing is one of the top issues former state assemblymember and Santa Cruz mayor John Laird hopes to tackle if elected.
The former secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency also has
climate change and health care as top priorities.
The democratic candidate told KION that providing more affordable housing is one way to help solve homelessness, in addition to addiction and mental health services.
“We have to address it through all those different issues in providing more
affordable housing, providing rental housing for people to live in to get
them off the street, to use the state millionaires tax for mental health
programs in a way that really leverages this issue,” Laird said.
Republican businesswoman and Seaside resident Vicki Nohrden has visited
homeless encampments and shelters to find solutions to homelessness.
"We are seeing a lot of drug and substance abuse and mental health and we need to do better. we need to have places where there’s detox centers," Nohrden said. "We need affordable and transitional housing."
To get more people housed, democrat John Nevill, a rancher and respiratory therapist from King City, suggests turning large, empty commercial buildings into multi-use properties with housing.
"There is a way that we can use those kind of spaces, both commercial, retail and housing and we can create an environment that will interact with each other and maybe in that respect, we’ll lower crime rates as well,” Nevill said.
Candidate Maria Cadenas from Santa Cruz, says many of the problems facing the Central Coast are interconnected. She’s fighting for pay equity to mitigate issues associated with housing and health care, among others.
“One of the big ones is we have to have pay equity for women, you cannot have the wage gap because that impacts what women can do in housing, health care, what we can do to take care of our kids,” Cadenas said.
If elected, the democrat also hopes to tackle issues surrounding climate
change and education.
All four candidates will appear on the March 3rd primary ballot.
California follows a top-two primary system so the two candidates
with the most votes will advance to the General Election in November,
regardless of party affiliation.
