The County Planning Department knows there are hundreds of unpermitted dwellings throughout the unincorporated areas of Santa Cruz County, especially up and down the San Lorenzo Valley. Aimed at insuring a basic level of health and fire safety in these living spaces, the county has rolled out a new “Limited Immunity Amnesty Program,” called the Safe Structures Program, to improve the safety of both residents and neighbors of these “not-entirely-legal” residential spaces, while trying to avoid the dreaded “Red Tag” that puts people out of much needed affordable housing.

It would seem the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) would be the last agency that needs convincing rents have risen sharply in Santa Cruz County. Yet that is what the Housing Authority of the County of Santa Cruz needed to do- prove the HUD-imposed rent caps for the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program were simply  too low for the program to be successful.

After buying home insurance from Liberty Mutual more than 35 years ago, Bob St. Clair received a letter stating that because his house in the Whispering Pines neighborhood of Scotts Valley was facing increased risk of wildfire and difficulty of access by emergency vehicles, Liberty Mutual was “choosing not to renew” his home insurance policy.