Monterey County Housing Articles

A 100-percent affordable housing project that could bring 42 units to downtown Monterey is another step closer to reality, after the Monterey City Council gave direction to staff and nonprofit developer MidPen Housing on Aug. 30 to proceed with plans…

Two different state courts have ruled recently that the human noise created by future tenants in housing projects are a form of pollution that cities must address. Lawmakers and the governor are working to reverse that novel interpretation of environmental …

Three of the biggest housing bonds in state history are bound for the 2024 ballot. But with no shortage of crises facing the state, California can only borrow so much and voters may succumb to “bond fatigue.”

Renter protections and eviction bans put in place for the COVID-19 pandemic have expired. By keeping them in place, California could slow the spread of homelessness. But that's not happening.

District 5 residents finally had a chance to turn out and speak their minds about Monterey County’s housing plans – including the controversial, state-mandated Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) that will require the county to significantly bolster its housing stock…

The homeless population fell by a third in Texas over the past decade as it surged in California. The cost of living is a big reason Texas is doing a better job at alleviating homelessness.

Los Angeles’ new homelessness solution is meant to quickly get people out of encampments and into housing—as the city grapples with the state’s largest population of unhoused residents. But the program is struggling to house people and connect them with …

A Superior Court judge on June 27 denied a temporary restraining order that would have halted a construction project currently underway in Monterey County, which would add three residential buildings with 45 units for 360 seasonal agricultural workers. Residents of …

On Dec. 13, the County Board of Supervisors heard an appeal about the county Planning Commission’s denial of a proposed farmworker housing project in Pajaro. They voted 3-1 to overturn that decision.

Within a few months after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, California officials launched a mad dash to permanently house thousands of people by converting motels and hotels into apartments under the name Homekey, using $646 million in federal, state…

The California Coastal Commission has broad authority to protect the state's shoreline. Now, some want to curtail its power over affordable housing proposals.

When HumanGood, the nonprofit corporate owner of the 200-unit Pacific Meadows apartment complex off Carmel Road for very-low-income seniors – many are in their 70s, 80s and 90s – cut back on janitorial services, the carpets in the hallways became…

Gov. Gavin Newsom poured ‘unprecedented’ money into homelessness, but providers say his use of one-time grants does not allow for long-term solutions to the state’s biggest crisis. That's what happened in Grass Valley.

Around 5:30pm on Monday, June 19, Jeff Nohr, Avila Construction’s project manager for a planned farmworker housing project in Pajaro, sent an email to Louise Ramirez, tribal chair for the Ohlone/Costanoan-Esselen Nation (OCEN), informing her that the company’s contract with…

After weeks of negotiations, the governor and top Democrats in the Legislature say they have a budget deal. Legislators will start voting today on bills related to the agreement, which sets spending and policy across a wide range of issues …

Zoning laws that restrict new housing development cause environmental damage, racial and class segregation, and force people into cars creating traffic. Now, a new movement wants to abolish zoning in the United States.

Homeless services advocates from Monterey and Santa Cruz counties are considering placing a small community of modular tiny homes in a church parking lot in Watsonville, aimed at reducing the number of people camped out along the Pajaro River. The …

Long before a levee along the Pajaro River breached on March 11, causing massive flooding in the community of Pajaro in North Monterey County, plans had been on the books to make permanent repairs to the levee system. It was…

Zoning laws determine what can be built and where. These laws have shaped California, but are they really just tools for social engineering? The history of zoning is closely tied to racial segregation, as well as the state's shortage of …

As groups representing landlords and real estate pour millions of dollars into political coffers to influence housing policy, tenant groups are celebrating recent victories.