Many of us have lost our income because of this pandemic.
We need rent dropped now.
We are in the midst of an unprecedented crisis.
In Santa Cruz, California, and across the country, the number of jobless claims has increased quicker and higher than ever before—far outstripping the height of the 2007-08 financial crisis. The “non-essential” economy has ground to a halt and after decades of neoliberal policy, millions of casual and adjunct workers have no protection.
We are forced, nonetheless, to participate in the “essential economy”: to somehow pay or find credit for groceries, utilities, insurance, and rent. This was difficult enough before the pandemic in one of the most expensive counties in the US. It is impossible now.
The coming weeks, months, and years are completely uncertain. The remarkable failure of the Measure M rent control bill shows us that we cannot rely on city hall. Tenants of Santa Cruz and of UCSC must begin planning and organizing.
A group of Santa Cruz housing activists and organizers from the COLA movement at UCSC ask you to fill in the following survey. This is to develop a network of tenants, both affiliated with UCSC and not, and to gauge the political will for tenant organizing in Santa Cruz around rent forgiveness, eliminating rent burden, and forming mutual aid networks.
If our employers stubbornly refuse to pay us enough to live here, if our landlords will not charge us rent that matches our wages, then we will only pay what we can afford.
This might be 29% or our income, lifting us out of rent burden. It might be zero.
Information Gathering for Santa Cruz Tenancy Organizing
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