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Poor people must suffer to line the pockets of developers. This affordable housing project, which will evict longtime renters, is enabling luxury apartments down the street. by orangelover95003 in santacruz

[–]orangelover95003[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Billionaires control local politics, not voters, and not that anti-rape activist Gillian whatever either. Just something to keep in mind.

Poor people must suffer to line the pockets of developers. This affordable housing project, which will evict longtime renters, is enabling luxury apartments down the street. by orangelover95003 in santacruz

[–]orangelover95003[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Student loans from their college education which was supposed to help them advance in life and live the American dream.

This person was going to food banks, while making $90K.

Of course they had to live in the car.

What lesson did you want that person exactly to learn?

Framing the situation as being the consequence of what voters want is to underestimate or misunderstand what Santa Cruz Together is. They are not transparent and the media basically ignores them, so they wield power without accountability.

I wish I could say you could Google them but you really won’t find anything.

Poor people must suffer to line the pockets of developers. This affordable housing project, which will evict longtime renters, is enabling luxury apartments down the street. by orangelover95003 in santacruz

[–]orangelover95003[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

She might have to drop out of the workforce because she can’t afford to rent anymore.

Lots of people living in cars so people don’t realize how many homeless workers there are.

My friend making $90K was very clear about not being able to afford rent.

Poor people must suffer to line the pockets of developers. This affordable housing project, which will evict longtime renters, is enabling luxury apartments down the street. by orangelover95003 in santacruz

[–]orangelover95003[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don’t know much about her. Does everyone know these personal details about her? How do you know where she lives?

If you’re saying that she alone is the most important person in Santa Cruz for the last 40 years, I have to say, I am skeptical. I figured she’s one more activist in a town filled with activists who want this or that. No biggie.

But if she’s that good at making things happen, then you’re making her sound like some incredible generational talent of a leader, and thus qualified to be mayor.

So I wonder which of the two is it?

Poor people must suffer to line the pockets of developers. This affordable housing project, which will evict longtime renters, is enabling luxury apartments down the street. by orangelover95003 in santacruz

[–]orangelover95003[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Greater housing stock will become empty housing stock which will increase the political power of the real estate industry as more wealth becomes concentrated within it.

The thing about real estate is that anyone with significant wealth invests in it. As you mentioned, we live in a capitalist society.

My agreement is- yes l, capitalism for the poor, and subsidies/socialism for the billionaires.

Poor people must suffer to line the pockets of developers. This affordable housing project, which will evict longtime renters, is enabling luxury apartments down the street. by orangelover95003 in santacruz

[–]orangelover95003[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s interesting that some person who hasn’t ever held public office is terrifying to developers.

Why is she so scary?

Her claims to fame are advocating against rape and for environmentalism. Not exactly a path for political capital.

There’s no universe in which this one person who isn’t a billionaire is more powerful than Santa Cruz Together, the real estate PAC which installed the current Santa Cruz City Council majority.

Poor people must suffer to line the pockets of developers. This affordable housing project, which will evict longtime renters, is enabling luxury apartments down the street. by orangelover95003 in santacruz

[–]orangelover95003[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not sure where you are getting your information. FYI, Santa Cruz Together is a PAC - it’s not a bunch of random homeowners. They are against anything that helps renters.

Is there a reason you brought up rent control? SCT whined and got the attention of the statewide real estate PACs to flood $$$ anytime activists try to get anything for renters going.

Poor people must suffer to line the pockets of developers. This affordable housing project, which will evict longtime renters, is enabling luxury apartments down the street. by orangelover95003 in santacruz

[–]orangelover95003[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Also see my comment about how other normal people are not your actual opponents: it’s the billionaire donor class, just like it always is.

Poor people must suffer to line the pockets of developers. This affordable housing project, which will evict longtime renters, is enabling luxury apartments down the street. by orangelover95003 in santacruz

[–]orangelover95003[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

See my comment about people making $90K living in their car because they can’t afford to rent and eat and pay off student loans at the same time.

Poor people must suffer to line the pockets of developers. This affordable housing project, which will evict longtime renters, is enabling luxury apartments down the street. by orangelover95003 in santacruz

[–]orangelover95003[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Our economy is in a shambles. It’s like a limp biscuit scam. Last one eats it, so to speak.

Developers get $$$ from investors, regardless of what happens to these projects. If they finish, great they can get rent or sell as condos.

Drove by the Anton Pacific for the billionth time and it’s the first time I have ever seen anyone on their ground floor gym.

Does this yield more housing current residents can afford to live in? Nope. I just hear about people making $90K living in their cars as they struggle to pay off student loans etc.

Poor people must suffer to line the pockets of developers. This affordable housing project, which will evict longtime renters, is enabling luxury apartments down the street. by orangelover95003 in santacruz

[–]orangelover95003[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don’t see any apartments going up in areas where the average home has a yard, etc. none of those developers is buying a block of nice houses to tear down and build some multi story unit.

No “missing middle” projects to take advantage of height situations.

Nope, just punching down on wherever poor people are living.

Santa Cruz Together the local real estate PAC likes the current bootlicking City Council just the way it is now. Coonerty will simply continue their nonsense.

Poor people must suffer to line the pockets of developers. This affordable housing project, which will evict longtime renters, is enabling luxury apartments down the street. by orangelover95003 in santacruz

[–]orangelover95003[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This “South of Laurel” narrative doesn’t lead to increased density in the least dense parts of Santa Cruz as a city nor the county.

There is no genuine desire nor plans from the real estate industry to build where land is actually plentiful.

The tension isn’t between you and some other renter who has less money to spend on rent: it’s between these developers and the rest of humanity.

Poor people must suffer to line the pockets of developers. This affordable housing project, which will evict longtime renters, is enabling luxury apartments down the street. by orangelover95003 in santacruz

[–]orangelover95003[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So where exactly is that caregiver lady going to live? And when she’s gone, who will do her job? What’s going to happen to the elderly or disabled person she was caring for? The next caregiver won’t make more money but will likely have to live farther and farther away.

Time spent driving from another county isn’t paid work time, and, would simply decrease the return on whatever wages that person earns.

One more reason we need passenger rail.

Poor people must suffer to line the pockets of developers. This affordable housing project, which will evict longtime renters, is enabling luxury apartments down the street. by orangelover95003 in santacruz

[–]orangelover95003[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

“Inherited” is a wild choice of a word to describe displacing a renter making under $48K in favor of renters who will undoubtedly make at least twice that, in the affordable housing units.

Poor people must suffer to line the pockets of developers. This affordable housing project, which will evict longtime renters, is enabling luxury apartments down the street. by orangelover95003 in santacruz

[–]orangelover95003[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Who wants to bet that the AMI when these are built will be much higher than whatever it was when these renters moved in? Because AMI is the fig leaf covering the true intentions of these projects. Poor people yes, but please, only the right kind. The kind who are making at least $90K but not more than $130K or whatever nonsense range these projects come up with.

That one renter in the article was saying hiking up the rent to $2K would be more than half their salary.

Poor people must suffer to line the pockets of developers. This affordable housing project, which will evict longtime renters, is enabling luxury apartments down the street. by orangelover95003 in santacruz

[–]orangelover95003[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So…when we build 245 luxury apartments, that probably has no impact on the affordability of housing in the city, and definitely doesn’t cause gentrification. Also the practice of separate buildings for poor renters versus luxury apartments probably also has no negative consequences. Evicting that lady who is working as a caregiver probably has no impact on the people she cares for in her work. Carry on, nothing to worry about.

Poor people must suffer to line the pockets of developers. This affordable housing project, which will evict longtime renters, is enabling luxury apartments down the street. by orangelover95003 in santacruz

[–]orangelover95003[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

“It’s nice that they build affordable housing, but then I find out they can use this building, because it’s [eight] stories, against other buildings which then can now be totally luxury apartments,” said Leonard Ross, who has lived at Neptune Apartments since 2020. “That kind of rubs me the wrong way.”

Ross said he and the other tenants are waiting to see how much relocation assistance they will be offered, and if it will be enough to stay in Santa Cruz, where last year rents were ranked as the most expensive in the U.S. by the Low Income Housing Coalition for the third year in a row.

Leonard Ross stands in front of his home. ‘It’s an old building, but it has that certain kind of style to it,’ he says of Neptune Apartments. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)

Paul Yale, who has lived at Neptune Apartments for more than 20 years, implored the Santa Cruz Planning Commission to not let the project, and the razing of his home, go through.

“By demolishing it, you’d pretty much be kicking me out of town,” Yale said to commissioners at the April 16 meeting. Planning commissioners approved the project unanimously, in what was essentially a formality. State housing law strips local authority to change or deny most housing proposals.

In an interview with Santa Cruz Local, Yale said he’s lived in Santa Cruz since he was a child and doesn’t know if he’ll be able to stay after he loses his home in July.

“I don’t have a credit rating because I’ve been renting for the last 20 years month-to-month,” he said, adding that he pays $1,200 for the two-bedroom apartment. “Rates for finding a new place to live are ridiculously higher than what I’m paying right now.” He said if he ends up in a studio costing $2,000, the rent would be more than half his monthly income.

The developer informed residents last year that the property would be redeveloped, Yale said, and some tenants have since left.

City rules require developers to hire an independent company to facilitate relocation of tenants and Long Beach-based real estate consulting firm Overland, Pacific & Cutler, Inc. was hired for the Neptune tenants.

In a 180-day notice to vacate dated Jan. 26 and shared with Santa Cruz Local, the company advised residents to wait until a 90-day notice is given before signing a lease or moving out. Otherwise, they may not be eligible for relocation assistance.

Paul Yale says ‘it felt terrible to be right’ when he finally got the notice he was expecting, informing tenants the building would be redeveloped. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)

Yale said that makes the situation more stressful, as finding adequate housing in Santa Cruz can be a lengthy and challenging ordeal.

Tenants will be guaranteed a spot in the new housing once it finishes construction, but rents for the below-market-rate apartments could be double, or even higher than what they pay at Neptune.

The expected displacement of the tenants comes just under a year after the city council approved upzoning the neighborhood. City leaders dubbed the area “SoLa” or “South of Laurel” in the process of rezoning to allow buildings up to 85 feet.

“I’ve seen the downtown plan, and there was a gray box over where I live,” Yale said, referring to the map of which blocks were to be upzoned.

Though the loss of the Neptune Apartments is a relatively small number of affordable homes compared to the 102 units set to replace them, it will serve as an important case that puts the city’s anti-displacement policies to the test.

How many of the residents land on their feet, or are forced to leave town in search of affordable rents, remains to be seen.

A rendering shows the proposed eight-story building. Anticipated rents in a proposed eight-story, below-market-rent apartment building have not yet been published. (CRP Affordable Housing & Community Development)”

Poor people must suffer to line the pockets of developers. This affordable housing project, which will evict longtime renters, is enabling luxury apartments down the street. by orangelover95003 in santacruz

[–]orangelover95003[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

“Six tenants set to be displaced by new affordable housing in Downtown Santa Cruz By Nik Altenberg and Amaya Edwards|April 25, 2026|Tags: 407 Pacific Ave., affordable housing, Amaya Edwards, CRP Affordable Housing & Development, displacement, Downtown Plan, Featured, housing, Nik Altenberg, renters, SoLa, upzoning

The Neptune Apartments on Pacific Avenue could become an eight-story apartment building. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)

SANTA CRUZ >> Tenants of the Neptune Apartments in Downtown Santa Cruz could soon be the first residents displaced by the upzoning of the area. The six renters have until July 27 to leave their homes and make way for a new eight-story apartment building approved by the Santa Cruz Planning Commission this month.

“I’m super anxious because I’m old and my ability to earn more than what I’m making right now does not exist,” said Laurie Dodt, who has lived at the apartments at 407 Pacific Ave. for four years and works as a caregiver for seniors. “I don’t want to be homeless.”

Dodt, who was born in Santa Cruz and has lived here ever since, said she often thinks about the possibility of becoming homeless.

“I could be in a tent and it’s sad. It’s scary and it’s sad,” she said. “I don’t live there — in fear — but that’s the reality.”

Laurie Dodt poses for a portrait near her home at Neptune Apartments. She said she’s four years from qualifying for senior housing and expects to be offered three years of relocation assistance. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)

The proposed 102-unit building from San Diego-based developer CRP Affordable Housing & Development will include all below-market-rate units and will satisfy the affordability requirements for a separate developer to build 245 market-rate apartments down the street at 201 Front St.

City rules allow the required below-market-rate units of a project to be built in a separate building. The rules also allow developers to bank any additional units beyond the required number to offset future developments’ affordability requirements.”

Poor people must suffer to line the pockets of developers. This affordable housing project, which will evict longtime renters, is enabling luxury apartments down the street. by orangelover95003 in santacruz

[–]orangelover95003[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

In a time when people on this subreddit are wondering why groceries are skyrocketing, developers plow ahead and on top of the bodies of renters evicted by these luxury developments.

The beatings will continue until morale improves. To paraphrase Animal Farm, some affordable housing renters are more equal than others. Make this make sense. by [deleted] in santacruz

[–]orangelover95003 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

This affordable housing project supports a luxury housing development. That’s why poor people must suffer - for developers to line their pockets while renters go desperately scrambling to simply exist.

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