I moved out of my family home when I was 17, worked as an au pair until I decided to come back to Santa Cruz County and the U.S. to pursue an education. From 19-22, while getting my AA and doing volunteer political work, I worked minimum wage food service and childcare jobs to support myself. I spent portions of that time housing insecure and homeless. I had to call my dad crying for help a few times because I legitimately could not make ends meet. Santa Cruz is one of the most unaffordable places to live in the United States. I have total empathy for anyone struggling to stay housed or who have opted out of the renter life and choose to live in a vehicle or some other solution, because I have experienced the torment of living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to stay housed. Thus, I have worked on a number of political organizing projects meant to improve the condition of life for houseless people in Santa Cruz.
After spending time talking to a bunch of houseless folks, I discovered that a major compounding struggle for them is the accumulation of parking infraction tickets that prevent them from registering or re-registering their vehicles...they then receive tickets for the lack of registration and the cycle of deepening poverty perpetuates. I launched an instagram campaign on my personal instagram that raised a few thousand dollars for the Santa Cruz Homeless Union to help some vehicle-dwellers pay off tickets and pay for registration.
I wrote a snarky, but true analysis of the "Quality of Life Ordinance Package" that went viral in my hometown. The Quality of Life Ordinance Package was an set of legislation meant to further criminalize being homeless.
I also directed folks to vote on a Santa Cruz City public poll in support or opposition to each of the goals of the ordinance package. Before I drove engagement, the poll had <100 responses and responses were largely in support. After I asked the community to weigh in, we had many hundreds of responses and the outcome was a resounding oppose. The City Council did not pass the ordinance package as proposed.