YES TO PEOPLE
YES TO HOUSING
YES IN MY BACK YARD

Healthy, Vibrant, Accessible Communities

SLO County has added almost four times as many jobs as we have built new homes. Most housing is out of reach for young families, seniors, and those who have called the Central Coast their home for generations. We need more places to live for everyone!

How Did It Get This Bad?

Exclusionary Zoning

Multifamily homes are illegal to build on most of our residential land. Design standards like height limits, setbacks, and parking requirements, limit creative ways to build affordable homes. This leads to segregated neighborhoods and schools, exacerbating inequality.

Lack of Funding

Nationally and statewide, subsidized housing has seen dramatic cuts in funding over the last 40 years. The market alone can never meet this need. Housing the poorest residents must become a priority in local, state, and federal budgets, as it was during the post-war era.

Lack of Building

New home construction has plummeted from it's peak, despite higher demand. Our local graduates, families, and small business owners are competing with retirees and remote workers from SF and LA. What does get built is typically single-family homes  that our cities and most of our neighbors can't afford.

Lack of Protections for Renters

Many, but not all tenants are protected from unjust evictions and rent gouging, leaving thousands homeless and even more neighbors paying too much of their income on rent. State laws have made it essentially illegal to enact broader protections. The tenants who are protected cannot leverage the rights they have, because there are dozens of people competing for their home as soon as they move out.

Expensive & Lengthy Approval Processes

Builders, homeowners, and affordable housing groups all face long approval processes that increase costs, and are subject to personal preferences by appointed advisory bodies. The more it costs to build a home,
the more it will cost to rent or buy that home.

What Can We Do About It?

Change Our Policies

End exclusionary zoning. Make it simpler to build multifamily housing, especially close to jobs and services. This alleviates traffic and lets everyone spend less money on commuting. 

Build for Everyone

Build subsidized homes for our neediest residents, while also building condos, granny flats, duplexes and infill homes for seniors, young families, students, and  service workers.

Protect Our Tenants

Form and empower tenant organizations. Pass “just cause” eviction laws. Prohibit rent gouging. Build more apartments in every neighborhood, so tenants have a choice in the market.

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