Join Housing Santa Cruz County for Affordable Housing Month Keynote & 6th Anniversary Celebration, an afternoon that brings together the big-picture vision and the on-the-ground reality of housing in California.

The Roadmap Home will explore a comprehensive, solutions-driven framework for ending the housing crisis. New Affordable Housing Pipeline data will confront a stark truth: nearly 40,000 affordable homes are ready to be built across California but without the funding to move forward. What does this mean for Santa Cruz County? And what will it take to ensure our community is ready to lead? Join leaders, advocates, and community members as we align around the next steps to move from possibility to production. Please join us for this educational and inspiring Affordable Housing Month Keynote event—which will also celebrates Housing Santa Cruz County’s 6th anniversary!

Speakers:

Chione Lucina Muñoz Flegal is CEO of Housing California, a prominent nonprofit advocacy group and policy institute focused on addressing housing scarcity and homelessness across the state, and that published Roadmap Home. Roadmap Home is a comprehensive policy framework and advocacy campaign intended to end homelessness, create 1.2 million new affordable homes, protect 1 million renters, and close racial equity gaps by 2030, throughout California.

Heather Hood is Vice President and Northern California Market Leader of Enterprise Community Partners, a national nonprofit that provides solutions, capital, and community development to address the U.S.’s shortage of affordable rental homes, and that published the 2026 California Affordable Housing Production Pipeline. The 2026 California Affordable Housing Production Pipeline is a report that illustrates the progress cities, counties, and the state have made to encourage affordable housing in California—and also underscores that without necessary public funding, these developments will not be built.

Elaine Johnson, J.D., Executive Director of Housing Santa Cruz County, the organization that will lead local action to implement the Roadmap Home and Affordable Housing Pipeline data in order to continue supporting the creation of the housing that Santa Cruz County and all its residents need to thrive. Housing Santa Cruz County’s work is a vital component of housing development in our county, through its public advocacy, support of democratic accountability, and community education.

ABOUT HOUSING SANTA CRUZ COUNTY: Housing Santa Cruz County, launched in 2020, is a coalition of stakeholders across a wide array of sectors, working collaboratively to align the political and community will necessary to create the housing that Santa Cruz County and all its residents need to thrive.

This event is co-sponsored by The Humanities Institute.