General Election - November 5, 2024

Kristen has built up her experience in local government and housing policy through her time on the Capitola City Council, and through her roles with AMBAG, Metro and the RTC. We believe her move from the city of Capitola to the county will allow Kristen to broaden and strengthen her pro-housing and pro-transit voice.

Monica has dedicated her professional career to housing vulnerable communities, particularly persons experiencing homelessness, both in the greater Los Angeles area and in Santa Cruz County. She has a long record of working with the County and community partners to understand the processes and needs of county residents, and is an advocate for density, walkable neighborhoods, and housing near transit.

Melinda is a nurse, mom of three, and Capitola resident running for City Council. She wants Capitola to do its fair share to produce more housing, especially for families and seniors. Some policies she touches on wanting to implement are streamlining permitting by allowing a Zoning Administrator to approve zoning-compliant projects, removing subjective design standards, and allowing more housing types throughout the city. In 2022, she supported the city's adoption of objective design standards and more recently supported the two 100% affordable housing projects proposed within Capitola. She is also in favor of expanding METRO service to Capitola, increasing the number of BCycle docks, and working with the RTC to implement Rail Trail segments 10 and 11 as quickly as possible.

John is a Scotts Valley resident running for City Council. Some of his main policy goals include legalizing more missing middle housing, making sure impact fees are not burdensome, and increasing housing production/availability within the city. He wants to see more development along Scotts Valley Drive to "fill in the blank spaces". He'd also like to see a larger portion of the transportation budget go toward pedestrian and bicycle projects to increase safety, reduce congestion, and increase foot traffic to local businesses. John is also a YIMBY member and notes that while outside of his jurisdiction, supports the Food Bin and Clocktower projects and points to SB 4, 9, and 423 as favored pro-housing legislation.

Dustin is a ten-year Scotts Valley resident and a low-income renter. While this would be Dustin’s first elected office and he doesn’t yet have a track record of housing-related votes, his willingness to learn and his clear intelligence suggest he is more than capable of growing into the role. He is committed to supporting diverse housing options like duplexes, apartments, and ADUs. Running in Scotts Valley, a city with a meager record for housing production, Dustin understands the need for change. In addition to increasing housing availability, he emphasizes improving bike and pedestrian infrastructure to build a more inclusive, affordable, and sustainable community, while addressing segregation, homelessness, and reducing carbon emissions.

We support Prop 5 because we support more funding for affordable housing. Prop 5 would make it easier for local governments to raise money for affordable housing by allowing bonds to pass with 55% of the vote. This will make it easier for the state legislature to pass bills that fund housing and critical public infrastructure. We wholeheartedly support this effort.

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We oppose Prop 33 because it would allow NIMBY cities to completely block new housing, driving up the cost of housing for everyone over the long term.

Prop 33 would repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, a 1995 state law that generally prevents local governments from limiting what landlords can charge new tenants when they first move in. It also prevents cities from limiting rent increases that existing tenants can be charged in housing built on or after Feb. 1, 1995.

YIMBY Action has supported measures that would curb dramatic year-over-year increases in rent, such as the 2019 anti-rent gouging measure in the CA Legislature (AB 1482). But Prop 33 is poorly written and will allow wealthy cities to block new affordable homes from being built.

Prop 33 blocks the state from putting any reasonable checks on local rent control policies, allowing local governments to “maintain, enact or expand residential rent control.” This is a recipe for systemic denial of new housing because wealthy cities constantly look for ways to avoid building more homes. We can already see what anti-housing jurisdictions are planning, for example Former Huntington Beach Mayor Tony Strickland has already openly stated that he’s excited for this measure because it will allow them to block new homes.

We oppose Prop 33 because it is poorly written and will give wealthy communities a powerful tool to block housing all income levels.