Publication Date

Spring 2025

Degree Type

Master's Project

Degree Name

Master of Urban Planning (MUP)

Department

Urban and Regional Planning

Keywords

Affordable housing, preservation, Santa Cruz, development, displacement

Abstract

In Santa Cruz, California, policies and political movements of the last fifty years have both prevented sprawl and stymied the construction of new infill housing. As a result, today Santa Cruz is one of the most expensive housing markets in the nation, and the lack of available affordable housing has led to incredibly high rent burdens for the majority of the population, putting residents at risk of displacement through landlord action or market forces. This report assesses the efficacy of preserving existing affordable housing as an anti-displacement strategy in Santa Cruz. It uses key stakeholder interviews with local housing practitioners to identify community assets that support preservation efforts, and recommends legislative, programmatic, and research strategies for the City of Santa Cruz based on the findings.

There are three common housing-related strategies that seek to counteract displacement of existing residents: production of new housing, tenant and community protections, and preservation of existing affordable housing. Given that cities have less control over their housing markets than they do of their own policies and ordinances, the academic literature on displacement suggests that municipal governments focus on enacting protection and preservation strategies while pursuing longer-term plans that support production during strong markets. The literature is not conclusive about the efficacy of preservation strategies but suggests they are potentially cost-effective and could impact the large number of people already living in subsidized and unsubsidized affordable housing. Case studies in different U.S. cities showed that preservation strategies had positive community impacts.

An important 2019 study by Kathryn L. Howell, Elizabeth J. Mueller and Barbara Brown Wilson entitled One Size Fits None: Local Context and Planning for the Preservation of Affordable Housing compared three different U.S. cities’ approaches to preservation initiatives and identified categories of community assets needed for successful preservation work in any city. Local sources of funding, shared data and information among stakeholders, partnerships amongst housing practitioners, and the role of the local government were identified as the four key types of assets that make up a city’s “preservation ecosystem.” This report applies the same methods as the 2019 One Size Fits None study. Eight key stakeholder interviews were conducted, along with analysis of local policies, planning documents, and media stories in Santa Cruz to identify local preservation community assets in those same four thematic categories.

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