Sociology Professors Steve McKay and Miriam Greenberg presented the first phase of their research project, No Place Like Home, at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History Oct. 13. The study focuses on the Santa Cruz housing crisis. Initial findings include testimonies from renters in low-income neighborhoods and the effect of rent burden. McKay and Greenberg collaborated with undergraduate students to collect more than 400 surveys and 29 in-depth interviews. See the responses, documentaries, mapping, and other projects made by undergraduate students here: http://www.noplacelikehomeucsc.org
Media coverage includes:
'It’s a catastrophe': low-income workers get priced out of California beach city - The Guardian, 8/24/16
Santa Cruz County median rent: $2,914 a month and rising - Santa Cruz Sentinel, 10/12/16
UC Santa Cruz survey in Beach Flats: 73 percent burdened by rent - Santa Cruz Sentinel, 10/14/16
Santa Cruz's Poor Rental Health - Good Times Santa Cruz, 10/18/16
Substandard Living, Full Price - City on a Hill Press, 10/21/2016
Professors McKay and Greenberg will focus on the Live Oak community starting January, 2017 for their second phase of No Place Like Home. Additionally, they plan to start a third phase April 2017 in Watsonville.
The study is the latest in an ongoing research funded by the UC Humanities Research Initiative. The project was done in collaboration with the extension Working for Dignity conducted by the Center for Labor Studies, the Critical Sustainabilities Project, and the Chicano Latino Research Center.