The city of Santa Cruz recently passed the citizen-led Measure C. The measure, focused on expanding access to affordable housing, comes at a dire time for residents and UC Santa Cruz students. 

Measure C establishes a fund that the city government will use to increase the amount and lower the average cost of affordable housing units across Santa Cruz.

UCSC only guarantees one year of housing for incoming first-year and transfer students. After that, a lottery system determines whether students will receive on-campus accommodation. The half of the student body that the university cannot house must turn to the Santa Cruz housing market.

At $3,843 a month, Santa Cruz’s median monthly rent for a two-bedroom house is nearly $2,500 higher than the national average. Santa Cruz County’s average housing wage, meaning the average wage required to afford rent without it costing over 30 percent of an individual’s income, is a staggering $81.21 per hour.

For UCSC students, who often do not make much more than the minimum wage of $16.50, the cost of rent in Santa Cruz can be an almost insurmountable barrier to education.

Evelin Chavez, a second-year politics and legal studies major, and an organizing director for the Student Union Assembly’s Office of External Affairs, told City on a Hill Press that due to difficulties with financial aid, she would likely not have been able to continue her education at UCSC if she had not secured on-campus housing. 

“Some of my friends ended up dropping out because they couldn’t get on-campus housing,” she said. “It doesn’t feel fair. Housing is a basic need, and every student should have access to it.”

Stuck between the university’s lottery system and Santa Cruz’s expensive housing market, Chavez voted yes for Measure C. 

“I’m hopeful that Measure C will at least increase [affordable] housing, which is what we need,” Chavez said. However, she remained cautious, saying, “I don’t see a lot of tangible action items currently — I think I want to see how they plan to implement it.”

In a conversation with City on a Hill Press, Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley stated that UCSC students voted overwhelmingly in favor of Measure C on Election Day.

Mayor Keeley finds that the main way Measure C will help students is by expanding the supply of affordable housing. Currently, housing developers in Santa Cruz are legally required to designate 20 percent of new units as at least moderate-to-low-income housing. With funding from Measure C, the city government will be able to increase both the number and affordability of those housing units. 

This means in the next few years, students will start to see more low or extremely low-income designated housing units available for rent. The exact number, however, is difficult to predict.

“It’s difficult because what we did was create essentially a menu of ways that we can invest,” Keeley said. “We want the flexibility to make the right investments as we’re moving through time.”

Keeley has been one of Measure C’s loudest supporters. He estimates the measure will raise around $100 million for various affordable housing projects in Santa Cruz over the next 20 years. 

Funding is raised through the introduction of two new taxes: An annual $96 tax on any defined privately owned piece of property and a graduated real estate transfer tax which only applies to properties valued over $1.8 million. 

While the mayor sees Measure C as a strong step in the right direction, he also clarifies that it is not the final solution to the cost-of-living crisis.

“It’s untrue to say Measure C by itself is going to solve the housing affordability problem in Santa Cruz. It is not,” Keeley said. Still, he expressed hope that students will see positive change.

“Students, in my view, are like everybody else in town. Many of them are registered voters. Every one of them is a taxpayer. Every one of them is doing something good for our community,” Keeley said. “I don’t think they ought to have to spend all their time, or even a substantial amount of their time, fretting over their housing.”

While also in support of the measure, Evelin Chavez expressed the opinion that off-campus development is not a complete solution to student housing insecurity.

“My worry is that we keep pushing students off campus,” Chavez explained. “And while it’s great that we’re building more off-campus housing, what are we doing to ensure that the students off campus also receive basic needs in other areas?”

UCSC administration did not respond to a request for comment about student housing and Measure C.