Grace Fisher’s dream

Foundation’s clubhouse to serve as arts outlet for youths of all abilities

One woman, cradling her infant in her arms, said she was evicted when eight months pregnant because of bogus “renovations.”

“It was one of the most stressful things I’ve ever had to experience,” she said, noting she received a payout to move, “but not for peace of mind.”

She, like speakers who followed, urged the council to put an end to rent evictions “just to hike up the rent and make people who grew up here not afford to live here anymore.”

Wendy Santamaria, a community organizer with the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, confided that, like the people she works with, she, too, is facing eviction. “I’m going through the same thing,” she said. “They’re trying to raise the rent, and I can’t afford it anymore. I’m seeing these people pushed and harassed, and now it’s happening to me, too.”

When it came time to talk about the affordable housing fund, Mayor Randy Rowse cautioned that, aside from the staff presentation and hearing from public speakers, the council would not take action on the ordinance other than to forward it to the council’s Ordinance

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