No Place Like Home: Voices and Visions of the Housing Crisis in Santa Cruz County

Miriam Greenberg
Sociology
UC Santa Cruz

Steven McKay
Sociology
UC Santa Cruz

Karen Tei Yamashita
Literature
UC Santa Cruz

This grant created an accessible archive of digital stories, images and interactive maps to explore the affordable housing crisis in Santa Cruz County, and to launch a public dialogue about the meanings of “home” and “sustainability” in the face of this crisis. The project extended community-based research collaboration between the UCSC Critical Sustainabilities project, the Center for Labor Studies, undergraduate researchers, and the Community Action Board. The online archive featured digital tools—data visualization, photography, digital-storytelling, maps—to make interviews, survey results, and teaching materials accessible to researchers, K-12 educators, and the public. The project culminated in a series of campus-community events to launch the website and featured a community discussion of affordable housing and participatory urban planning. The project documented how the changing economy and housing crunch affected local communities, and residents’ ability to realize their visions of “home.”